ABSTRACT·

The study assessed perfonnance of cocoa marketing cooperative in Abia State. The· specific objectives were, to examine the socio-economic characteristic of the marketing cooperative members, find out the benefits cooperative members obtain from the cooperative. Furthennore, incomes of marketing cooperative members were compared with non-marketing cooperative. Also evaluated in the study was the marketing performance of the marketing cooperative using marketing performance indices. A simple random technique was in data collection. A total of 120 respondents were sampled with the aid of structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as means and percentages were used to analyze the socio economic characteristics of respondents as well as benefits accrued to members from the cooperatives. Chow test was used to compare the incomes of marketing cooperative members and non marketing cooperative members. Marketing performance indices such as Gross marketing margin; net-return and marketing efficiency were used to assess cooperative performance. The cooperative rendered wide range of functions that accrued to members. The benefits range from financial benefits to non-financial benefits. The Chow's test showed that, there was significant difference between the income of members of marketing cooperatives and - income of non-members. This implies that the members of marketing cooperative had higher income than non members. In the period under study, the cooperative purchased 25 tons of cocoa beans, achieved gross margin of 12 percent and marketing efficiency of 63.9 percent. A profit of N 655000 (six hundred and fifty five thousand Naira) was also achieved by the cooperative. These indicate an impressive performance by the cooperative. The farmers were constrained by low selling price, fluctuation in prices, activities of middlemen, lack of good road, high cost of transportation, lack of modem processing activities · as well as lack of finance. The study recommended that more marketing cooperatives of cash crop should be established; government should increase the attention given to cooperative societies in terms of financial support since forming cooperative will improve income of farmers and hence alleviate poverty. Government should provide good road net work system to rural areas where cash crops like cocoa and other agricultural produce ~ produced