Study on marketing strategies for sunflower oil and cake in the Eastern Province of Zambia

31-05-2018

Despite the discovered potential for the sunflower in a previous value creator report, the cooperatives lack marketing strategies and their desire is to see the sunflower business expand in their various cooperatives. Hence, getting a marketing strategy will put these Cooperatives a step ahead in becoming income secure.

Although sunflowers are recognised as a potential crop for smallerholder farmers, it is still considered as a least significant crop by some farmers in the Eastern Province of Zambia. Sunflower is mostly grown together with other staple crops, such as maize and groundnut and the sunflower value chain has three products which are sunflower seed, sunflower oil and sunflower cake. The associations press sunflower seed from which they obtain the sunflower oil and sunflower cake as a by-product. The sunflower oil is mainly used for household consumption, while a large quantity of the sunflower cake is used for the preparation of compounded livestock feed.

 

Project Task

As part of the project task, I will study and examine the current marketing practices and marketing challenges of three associations which are the Mambwe Women District Association (MWDA), Chadiza District Farmers Association (CDFA) and the Petakue District Farmers Association (PDFA). Also, in conjunction with the associations, I will identify possible market outlets for the sunflower products and how these products can be marketed by the Associations.

Initial Findings

I already conducted the first study with the Mambwe Women District Association. I discovered that the sunflower oil is mainly bought and consumed by the members of the Association. Beside consumers acknowledging the fact that the sunflower oil is cheaper and thicker compared to other oil sold in their communities, some consumers raised concerns about the smell which needs to be improved. Also, some neighbouring households were not aware that the association processes sunflower oil and cake.

The initial findings for the Mambwe District Association indicates that the market for sunflower cake is mainly in the city Lusaka and individual traders are the main buyers and transporters of sunflower cake to Lusaka to be used for compounded animal feed. The association is however challenged with how to store the sunflower cake, since the by-product is easily attacked by weevils (korenworm), making it powdery which is not preferred by the traders.

 

Expected outcome

At the end of this project, my aim is to:

1. Provide marketing recommendations for sunflower oil and cake among the associations
2. Help the associations come up with a SMART marketing strategy that fits their capabilities

 

Jemima Afari-Kwarteng, Intern Agriterra Zambia