Characteristics of the vegetable retail distribution for different social sectors in Rosario (Santa Fe)
HORTICULTURE | Firpo, I.T. - Rotondo, R. - Mondino, M.C. - Ortiz Mackinson, M. - Grasso, R. - Calani, P. - Trevizan, A.
Tags: Marketing, postharvest technology
Fresh vegetables are perishable products with post-harvest losses, basically at retail level. The objective was to characterize the vegetable retail distribution, evaluating the use of different practices, for three areas of Rosario city, which differ from the economic point of view. Twenty surveys were conducted in each social sector (high, medium and low), with data provided by the Social Observatory of the Municipality of Rosario. By Chi2 test was de- termined the association between variables and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA). In the analysis of differentiation between strata (Chi2) some evaluated items were highlighted. In the area with higher purchasing power: prioritized quality over price (78 %) (P = 0.0004), greater diversity of products for sale (60 %), greater attention to the protection of goods during transport (95 %) exhibited products in conditioned display (30 %) and trays (70 %) possessed worktop with water (35 %), air conditioning (35 %) business area up to 27 m2 (55 %); roof slab (85 %) performed weekly registration (25 %) had between 20 and 40 % losses in lettuce and 10 and 20 % in tomato (P = 0.02), estimated by the retailer, the size of their shops was between smalll and medium (100 %). Areas of medium and low purchasing power had numerous items with common results, highlighting the priority of price or price and quality. The ACM showed that the higher area is associated with the use of classification worktop with water and air conditioning while the lower middle otherwise. It was evident that shops that exhibited in trays were the ones that sprayed and processed, while those who used boxes did not. In general, practices to reduce post-harvest losses are hardly used.