The impact of mechanical post-harvest damages of tomatoes on profit margins in Soroti city west and east

Abstract

The study employed primary data using structured questionnaire to collect information from 80 respondents selected using census survey method. The impact of mechanical post-harvest damages of tomatoes on profit margins, main objective was to impact of mechanical post-harvest damages and profit margin of tomatoes among retailers in Soroti city west. The specific objectives were to assess the effect of packaging methods on mechanical post-harvest damage of tomatoes, to assess the effects of mechanical post-harvest damage of tomatoes on profit. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics, gross margin using Spss and excel version 20.0 The result of the analysis revealed that the best tomato transporting material that had minimal mechanical damages were woven baskets with the gross profit margins of 29.4%, 29.4%,29.9%,92.9% on bruises, cuts, scratches, pits respectively. The operating profit margin of 35% indicated that the tomato retail business was feasible to tomato retailers and therefore they were able to recover expenses and generated profit with the gross margin of 35.9%. In conclusion the lower the gross margin, the lesser mechanical post-harvest damages of tomatoes and the higher the gross margin the less damages in the tomato transporting material. The best transporting material for tomatoes among retailer should be woven.