Market structure and conduct: A performance check on edible oil markets in the Niger delta region of Nigeria

Abstract

Edible oil is a leading agribusiness enterprise in Nigeria. Much is known about its production and nutritional value but little is known about the functionality of the markets’ systems. The paper analysed effects of structure, conduct on performance of edible oil (palm and vegetable oils) markets using primary data generated through questionnaires administered by trained enumerators. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 432 edible oil marketers from 36 markets in 3 States of the Niger Delta. To ascertain the structure-conduct-performance viewpoint, the use of ordinary least square regression technique was implored to analyse the data generated from the respondents. The results portrayed that some parameters of structure (product innovation, fair prices, product homogeneity) were positive predictors of performance, while conduct (collusion) negatively affected the performance. The values of R2 (0.724 and 0.612), Adjusted R2 (0.697 and 0.578) and F statistics (F=14.747 and 5.206: p