Title: Systemic view of the market opportunities for fresh cuts convenience in Ghana

Authors: Kwamina Ewur Banson; Daowei Sun; Irene Baaba Banson

Addresses: Systems Design and Complexity Management, School of Marketing and Management, University of Adelaide Business School, SA 5005, Australia; Department of Technology Transfer Centre (TTC), Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute (BNARI), Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), P.O. Box LG80, Legon-Accra, Ghana ' Systems Design and Complexity Management, School of Marketing and Management, University of Adelaide Business School, SA 5005, Australia ' Rapid Solutions, Lion Street, Haatso-Ecomog, Accra, Ghana

Abstract: The demand for convenience fruits offers opportunities for farmers, vendors and processors. Currently, processing facilities in Ghana are plagued with expensive supply of raw materials and interrupted electricity supply. As a result, retailers have taken over the fresh-convenience fruit market. This paper report on the status of fresh fruit convenience markets among vendors and hawkers, and identify the challenges that they face. A market survey conducted showed that, vendors are able to generate between 45-90 Ghana Cedis as revenue from fruits sales per-day. However, vendors stock becomes more expensive as a result of fruit perishing, but they have difficulty passing on increased costs to consumers. This study revealed that 65.9% of total fruit production is wasted between farm gate and retail end. The results of this paper will help governments to improve the high ethical standards and reduce business and legal risk associated with industrial vending fruit chains.

Keywords: street markets; street vendors; hawkers; fruit processing; fruit wastage; fruit value chain; systems thinking; iceberg approach; Ghana; market opportunities; fresh fruit; convenience foods; fruit markets; ethics; legal risk; business risk.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMABS.2016.080232

International Journal of Markets and Business Systems, 2016 Vol.2 No.2, pp.141 - 156

Received: 27 May 2016
Accepted: 27 Jun 2016
Published online: 08 Nov 2016 *

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