PROFIT MARGINS IN CITRUS FRUIT BUSINESS IN HARIPUR DISTRICT OF NWFP, PAKISTAN

The present study was conducted during the citrus production season of year 2008. The study was designed with the core objective to examine the marketing margins in citrus fruit business in Haripur district of NWFP, Pakistan. The area of Haripur is one of the leading citrus fruit producing districts of the province. The results show that growers are receiving only 35.7% of the final price, while rest of the 64.0% price is accumulated into the profit basket of market functionaries. The various intermediaries share this profit bulk as; contractors get 21.3%, 9.8% of the profit margin is taken away by the commission agents and 14.9% by the wholesalers, while remaining 18.4 % profit margin goes to the retailers and other functionaries. This indicates that the marketing system in the project area is not properly regularized and because of which the growers do not receive logical return for their crops. Thus, bulk of the profit (almost 2/3rd) is taken away by the market functionaries. The involvement of multiple distribution channels in citrus marketing result in malpractices of multifarious natures. Because of these negative tactics the rate of return to the citrus growers is squeezed to the lowest. Study further suggests that to ensure a judicious return to growers the existing marketing system in the district needs to be regularized. The citrus growers in the study district have to be empowered and facilitated through soft loans /credit and skills and techniques of scientific citrus production. Thus they will be able to take rational crop management decisions and ultimately the crop production will increase and produce surplus will generate an export that will earn foreign exchange for the province and the country.