Domestication, Utilization and Marketing of Indigenous Fruit Trees in West and Central Africa - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 178

than the marcotts. Therefore, through participatory tree domestication, different
statures of trees can be produced. This offers opportunities for the development of
multistrata cocoa/coffee agroforests, which have the advantage of buffering against
fluctuations in world commodity prices while providing environmental services
(Leakey et al ., 2003).
9.5 Market Development
To be successful, tree domestication has to be linked to commercialization and
market expansion. Consequently, a strong marketing component has been
developed in parallel with the tree domestication programme. Market surveys
initiated to identify the prices and quantities of the main non-timber forest
products in local, regional and international markets (Ndoye et al ., 1998;
Awono et al ., 2002; Facheux et al ., 2003) have been undertaken. Studies to
identify the distribution channels, processing, storage, transformation and
packaging of the main products are also in progress (Kengni et al ., 2004;
Tchoundjeu et al ., 2005). For species with hard-shelled nuts, such as
Ricinodendron heudelotii , ICRAF has developed a nutcracker with a private
partner based in Douala, Cameroon. The cracking machine is very efficient
as more than 70% of seeds can easily be decorticated without crushing
the extracted kernels. This will help farmers who find the extraction of
Ricinodendron heudelotii kernels very labour-intensive, as kernels must be
extracted one by one. Moreover, the characterization of this species (Leakey et
al ., 2000; Atangana et al ., 2002) will help in the development of cultivars with
the traits desired for consumption and to satisfy market preferences. To address
issues related to the effects of the supply chain, quality assurance and pricing
structure, farmers have been trained in group marketing. In addition, ways are
being sought to provide them with market information in due time. From the
group sales organized in Ondeck village in Cameroon, for example, the
following results were obtained in less than 1 year of activity. The number of
group enterprises increased from two in 2005 to four in 2006. Membership
rose from 42 to 121 during the second group sales in 2006 and total revenue
generated by the four groups rose from US$1600 in 2005 to US$6000 in
2006. The increase in sales could be explained by the improvement in the
bargaining power and negotiation skills the farmers acquired during their
training.
Scaling-up issues are also important, and a study of the relationship
between market prices and fruit traits in Dacryodes edulis found that retailers
charged consumers higher prices for fruit with desirable traits, whereas
wholesalers only paid a negotiated price regardless of fruit characteristics
(Leakey et al ., 2002). Thus, market studies need to be expanded to help
farmers gain the right price from their production.