Analysis of tomato sales in the state of Ceará in the years 2014-2018

Abstract

Tomato represents a vegetable of significant economic relevance for Brazil, positioning itself as one of the ten main producers in the world, with an annual production that exceeds the 4 million tons mark. In the context of the Northeast, the state of Ceará assumes the position of second largest producer, as a result of investments in vegetable farming by family farming, second only to Bahia. Given this approach, this study directs its attention to the fruit of the tomato plant (Solanum lycopersicum L), given its notable economic importance. For this purpose, monthly price data was collected at the producer, wholesale and retail level in the period between January 2014 and December 2018 with the aim of evaluating the seasonal price variation, the marketing margin and the evolution of tomato marketing prices in the State of Ceará, through statistical tools, aiming to identify times of low and high prices in order to help reduce the instability of producers' income. The information necessary for this study was collected on the CONAB website, which contains historical series of the main crops grown in the country. In conclusion of the results obtained, it was observed that average annual prices grew systematically over the period. When it comes to consumer spending on tomatoes, the majority is allocated to offsetting marketing activities (63.68%), distributed in 48.05% at the retail level and 15.63% at the wholesale level. Meanwhile, the producer receives around 36.32% of total consumer expenses. The analysis of seasonal indices is marked by the peak in values, manifesting around the month of May, indicating an off-season period in the productive and wholesale sectors, followed by for a harvest period from August to October, at both marketing levels. The retail level presented a different harvest pattern than the producer and wholesaler. Specifically, in the months of August to October, the seasonal index demonstrated a marked upward trend, thus diverging from the dynamics observed at previous levels.