An Economic Analysis of Volume and Price Behaviour of Vegetables in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago

Aims: This study was aimed to examine the behaviour and pattern of fluctuations in market volume and prices of 21 major vegetables consumed in Trinidad and Tobago.

Study Design: The study used monthly data for a period of 10 years from 2006 to 2015 obtained from the National Agricultural Marketing and Development Corporation (NAMDEVCO) to investigate fluctuations in market volume and prices of the selected vegetables. Growth trend and seasonality were worked out using linear and lag models.

Methodology: The seasonal indices were worked out by using ratio to moving average decomposition method which was followed by the evaluation of seasonality. Besides, the nature of relationship between market volume and prices was analysed using a lag-linear model.

Results: The results revealed that the seasonality was high (38.71 per cent) in the arrival of large melongene and low (11.79 per cent) in medium sweet peppers arrival to the market. However, the seasonality in price was more (53.68 per cent) in christophene arrival, while it was less (11.96 per cent) in green plantains. The results of lagged linear models indicated that past prices and volumes were important factors that determine the current prices and the marketed volumes in many vegetables.

Conclusion: The study found significant importance to trend in market arrivals and price behaviour of vegetable crops both over the years and across the months, also confirming a negative relationship between market arrivals and prices over the years. Thus, indicating imperfection in marketing of vegetables in the wholesale market, as the traders used the previous week price as guide for setting the current price of the vegetable.