Market performance analysis of horticultural products and study of consumers' behavior in Analamanga, Itasy and Vakinankaratra Regions, Madagascar

摘要

The horticultural sector is the backbone of the highlands' economy of Madagascar with a considerable production engaging more than 80% of its population in order to satisfy the needs of a growing demand. However, not only do several factors make it impossible to involve producers in the downstream chain, but also ignorance of consumers' expectations create a fallacy between production and marketing. In this context, the main objective of the study is to assess the market performance of horticulturalproducts at the level of production and marketing in order to improve the match with the expectations of consumers. So, questions arise: how is the market performance of horticultural producers? What factors influence consumers' behavior toward the market for horticultural products? To provide answers to these questions, the analysis of production and marketing efficiency was carried out using the "data envelopment analysis two-stage value chain model" before the transaction cost approach. The factors of consumer perception, as well as the identification of socioeconomic parameters, were then analyzed by factor analysis and multiple regression respectively. Moreover, consumers are susceptible to factors such as "biological products", "quality", "cost","storage problem", and "proximity", where only the model related to the latter is significant. It is therefore recommended to use a new production approach while integrating the new technology at the market level in order to continuously meet consumer expectations.