Assessment of Fruit Consumption and Marketing Chains in Aleta Chuko District of Southern Ethiopia

The aim of this study was to assess ways of utilization and marketing chains of fruits in Aleta Chuko district of Southern Ethiopia. The area of study was purposively selected considering the availability of fruits at any season. Then four sites (kebeles) were randomly selected to conduct this study. A total of 250 farm households who produce fruit were selected. To collect the required information's, a structured questionnaire were prepared and dispatched through data collectors. All the collected data were subjected to SPSS version 20 for analysis. The results showed that high production percentage of pineapple (95%) followed by avocado (76.2%) and papaya (66.3%) were noticed. Although there was such production amount, the percentage of household consumption level for pineapple, avocado and papaya was 28.6, 37.5 and 28.7 respectively. Moreover, the percentage amounts sold to market for pineapple, avocado and papaya were 71.4, 53.8 and 68.5 respectively. Most of the households (61.4%) did report that they sell their fruits to nearby markets whereas 36.7% did sell at their own farm gate. Most of the households responded that 5 to 10% of postharvest fruit losses occurred during transportation. The causes of such losses were reported as the type of transport used for fruit marketing as a major factor which accounts for 48.6% in addition to type of packaging material (31%) and distance to market (18.6%).