Marketing of Indigenous Fruits in Southern Africa - Indigenous Fruit Trees in the Tropics: Domestication, Utilization and Commercialization - page 234

These findings agree with the economic theory that buyers are highly varied in
their needs and hence mass marketing might not be a desirable option.
As regards quantity, clusters 1, 3, 5 and 6 preferred the largest quantity of
500 g but the remaining clusters did not. All clusters except cluster 2 preferred
small fruits. While all buyers liked fresh fruits, those in cluster 5 did not appear
to favour them. This indicates that a short-term plan to increase market sales
could be to target clusters 1 and 3 by sorting and grading the fruits to supply
the preferred combination of characteristics, which would capture the 37% of
individuals in the market who preferred this type of product. Clusters 2 and 4
might not be worth targeting in the near future because they contained fewer
individuals than the other groups.
Most of the people in clusters 1 and 3 were found in Harare, especially
Mbare, followed by Westgate and the City Botanical Gardens. Harare had the
potential for increased marketing of U. kirkiana fruits. In addition, most buyers
bought at least 20 U. kirkiana fruits per week, belonged to the working class,
were aged between 18 and 65, had attended between 1 and 13 years of formal
schooling, and were mainly males. These are the groups who preferred all the
identified fruit attributes. Cluster 2 was the opposite of clusters 1 and 3, in that
57% of them had a family size of three or fewer persons and 66% were found
in Murehwa and Westgate.
12.5 Conclusions
Although there is a substantial amount of trading of indigenous fruits in both
rural and urban areas of Zimbabwe, the system is still underdeveloped.
Property rights guiding the use and management of the fruit trees and fruits are
not transparent. Informal by-laws imposed by village and traditional leaders
limit the market supply. But consumers like the fruits and are willing to pay for
them. The ideal fruit for a buyer of U. kirkiana fruits is brown, small in size, and
fresh. The information given in this chapter supports the idea that it would be
beneficial to extend the production season to provide a supply of fruits outside
the peak period. Planting more indigenous fruits on farms and promoting fruit
storage will improve the supply during off-peak periods.
The next step is to intensify efforts towards improving the market supply of
fruits and increasing demand by encouraging and facilitating a government
initiative to set up a reliable institutional framework that will reduce risk and
uncertainty for traders in indigenous fruits. Rules that favour private action may
be introduced. Producers may either buy or be issued with free collection
licences. Once the producers are free to collect and sell the fruits without any
fear of punishment, they might introduce the trees on their farms. Improving
marketing transparency by standardizing the units of measurement will allow
prices to change at constant quantities.
Since the level of demand seems promising, traders should supply high-
quality fruits to urban markets. Also, research to facilitate the introduction of the
fruits to formal markets should be conducted. Traders may reorganize
themselves to undertake the intensive sorting, grading and packing of the fruits.