Retail Sale of Wild Edible Fruits in Urban Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso

In sub-Saharan Africa, the local fruit trade is becoming more prosperous and presents itself as a promising sector for socio-economic development. The implementation of an effective marketing system requires extensive research throughout the marketing chain of local fruit. Thus, a study was conducted in Ouagadougou, one of the great capitals of West Africa. The objective of the study was to characterize the demographic structure of retailers, their gender, and their age and also to determine the most-selling fruits. For this, a socio -economic survey was conducted on auction sites of local fruits. The most sold fruit are Ziziphus mauritiana, Lannea microcarpa, Vitellaria paradoxa and Saba senegalensis. These four fruits occupy 55.54 % of retailers marketing channel local fruits. These fruits are available, preferred by consumers and provide relative satisfactory profits to the retailers. The local fruit market is 78% dominated by women. Almost (91%) retailers cannot read or write. Young men under 30 years are rare in the retail sale of local fruits. The parameters that determine the choice of units of selling fruits are: volume, the nature of the fruit, the pattern of behavior of the fruit after maturity and fruit shape. Of these four parameters, those who have a strong determination on the choice of unit of sale are the behavior of the fruit after maturity and the nature of the fruit. A similar study on consumers will contribute to best understanding of local fruits trades.