Abstract: Effective marketing channels ensures timely transfer of products and services from the production point to the consumption point at a cost or price so that all the participants in marketing benefits. Most marketing channels in developing nations like Kenya are ineffective resulting into losses, high transaction cost and high prices for the end consumer. The purpose of the study was to evaluate pineapple marketing channel effectiveness in Bureti Sub County., Kericho County, Kenya. Descriptive research design was used in this study with quantitative and qualitative approaches in data collection and analysis. Structured interview schedule was used to collect primary data from farmers and traders through a face to face interview. Secondary data was collected from different published and unpublished sources including government institutions, journals, working papers and the website. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. Results of this study show that there were eight marketing channels and that most of the produce passed through the longer channels implying high costs Results also revealed that pineapple purchased were of average quality and affordable to consumers. Most of the consumers were concerned about freshness of the pineapple fruits. In addition the time taken to deliver pineapple by both farmers and traders was within 3 days. Based on the findings this study conclude that the number of actors along the marketing channel affect its effectiveness because of the cost implications and that the pineapple marketing channels were not very effective in delivering the expected produce quality and consumer preference at an affordable price to the consumers. This study recommends improvement of market infrastructure, market support services, collective marketing and value addition so as a way of improving the effectiveness pineapple marketing channels.
Keywords: Pineapples, marketing channels, marketing effectiveness, Bureti Sub County, Kericho-Kenya.
Title: Analysis of the effectiveness of Pineapple Marketing channels in Bureti Sub County, Kericho County, Kenya
Author: Jacob O. Okal, Christopher O Gor, Michael E. Omunyin
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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