Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Gokwe town, so the inhabitants had the option of buying the fruits from the
markets rather than travelling to the rural areas or waiting for fruits to be
brought to them by friends and relatives. Likewise, males were almost twice as
likely to buy
S. cocculoides
fruits as females. It may be that males did not
spend much time collecting
S. cocculoides
fruits and their major source fruits
was the market.
12.4.1 Consumer preferences and willingness to buy
Buying behaviour for the two fruits is influenced by size, colour, freshness and
quantity. The importance of these characteristics to buyers of
U. kirkiana
fruits
differed (Table 12.4). The most important attribute was size, which scored an
average weighting of 36%. Among the different size options presented to buyers,
small size had a higher positive effect on the preference structure than large size.
These findings were contradictory to the findings of informal discussions on
buyer attitudes and willingness to buy
U. kirkiana
fruits. In informal discussions,
most buyers reported that they would buy big
U. kirkiana
fruits with a low price.
However, it is possible that most people were more concerned with the notion of
low price than size. Also, buyers were instructed to disregard taste, which might
be incorporated in the decision-making process. However, the study results
supported the view expressed in the informal discussions that small fruits are
tastier than big ones; hence, according to consumers, tasty fruits are equated
with good-quality fruits. Further research on this aspect is needed.
Table 12.4.
Important
Uapaca kirkiana
fruit attributes identified by buyers in
Zimbabwe, 1999/2000 (
n
= 250).
Average
Attribute
Level
Utility
importance (%)
Colour
16
Brown
0.630
Yellow
0.630
Quantity
30
300 g
0.735
400 g
0.072
500 g
0.657
Size
36
Small
0.844
Mixed
0.105
Big
0.949
Appearance
18
Round fresh
0.317
Rough non-fresh
0.317
Kendall's tau
0.778
Significance
0.0018
Source: Ramadhani (2002).
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