The role of middlemen in the marketing of staples: the case of Kariakoo wholesale market

In general business parlance, middlemen are bad people. Whenever middlemen are involved in any intermediary marketing role between producers and consumers, they are looked at with suspicion. Farmers suspect middlemen that, by paying them prices for below what the final urban consumers pay for their products; the middlemen earn enormous profits which they do not deserve. Consumers look at middlemen with contempt that, by charging exorbitant prices, the middlemen are responsible for the high market food prices in urban centres. Middlemen have, therefore, been regarded as profiteers and exploiters because they make abnormal profits. They have been considered undesirable because they arbitrarily force apart prices paid by consumers and prices received by farmers, and that they make money for nothing. This study embarked with the aim of exploring the marketing structure and organisation for staples to evaluate the role of middlemen in the marketing The study has revealed that, in the absence of government intermediaries between the producer and consumers of staples in the country, the domestic in order system. Official the urban individual middlemen handle much of the marketing business between producers and consumers. It has been shown that, middlemen are not all what has been alleged or thought about them. They are desirable and vital in the marketing process of staples because in their absence, the Dar es Salaam urban population would not have been getting the supplies of staples they are getting now. Middlemen make profits alright, but the profits are very normal and are obtained under very risky and difficult conditions. The big difference between the farm prices and the Kariakoo wholesale market prices are not due to the existence of many middlemen, but due to high marketing costs and particularly the high transportation costs. Empirical findings of the study have revealed that, the more the number of middlemen are involved in the marketing of staples, the mare the supply or market arrivals of staples at Kariakoo market. And consequently, the more the supply of staples, the lower and stable the prices are to consumers. Middlemen contribute a lot to the efficiency and effectiveness of the agricultural food products marketing system in Tanzania. They deserve recognition, appreciation and organisational as well as operational support from the government in order to improve further the country's agricultural marketing system.