Quality Characteristics of Traded Pigeonpea Sample Clauses

Quality Characteristics of Traded Pigeonpea. Pigeonpea quality is determined by the buyer through visual observation. The quality of pigeonpea is determined differently by different buyers in different market due to customer‟s preference. The requirement of quality decreases when moving down to the value chain. The middlemen in the upstream demand high quality pigeonpea and forced the farmers to incur cleaning cost. This therefore shows that the quality of pigeonpea increases when moving down the value chain. 68% of the middlemen required special quality in the first market (rural market), 16% in the second market in Babati town and 8% for Arusha and Dar es Salaam respectively. Color being a most important in quality requirement since, 74% rank color as the most important to consider when buying pigeonpea while 82% of participants who buy in upstream preferred white as the quality required pigeonpea in downstream of the value chain, while the remaining 18% buy the available pigeonpea because Babati is well known as the produce of superior quality suitable for the export market, especially the large and white colored grains. According to rank of different participants, the second quality requirement on physical aspect is seed pattern followed by shape and size. In batch characteristics, buyers prefer most to check if there is no weevil damage, cleanliness of the seeds and foreign matters. For the dry whole grain requirements such as protein content, sugar content, cooking time are not considered by the buyer when buying dry pigeonpea because they are not required by customers. In case the seller falls short of the quality requirement, buyer can accept to buy if the quality is not satisfied in one bag but the buyer can cut 1-10 kilograms per bag of 115 kilogram or can buy at less price. The buyer cannot buy dry pigeonpea which is damaged by weevil. By reducing the price of pigeonpea or cut kilograms, reduces the total revenue that the seller can get. In dry pigeonpea market the buyers are more concerned about the quality because their customers require and they get better price once they trade the quality pigeonpea and get more access to the market. 96% of the buyers in the first market are satisfied by the quality provided by the sellers, 4% not satisfied the buyer due to lack of facilities to clean, while 100% of the buyers in the second, third and fourth market are satisfied because is meeting their requirement in terms of color, size, seed pattern, shape, foreign matters, damaged by weevil and clea...