Seasonal Festive periods and Meat Price Transmission and Market Integration in Akwa Ibom State, Southern Nigeria

The study analyzed the dynamics of meat (pork, goat meat, beef, exotic chicken, local chicken and snail meat) price transmission and market integration in Akwa Ibom state, Nigeria. Average monthly prices (measured in naira per kilogram) of meats in rural and urban markets were used in the analysis. The data covered the period from January 2005 to September 2013, and was obtained from the quarterly publications of the Akwa Ibom State Agricultural Development Programme (AKADEP). The trend analysis showed that, prices of sampled meats in the rural and urban markets have positive significant relationships with time. The descriptive analysis revealed that, the standard deviation and coefficient of variation of rural price of each meat was similar to its urban counterpart and this was substantiated further by the respective pair linear graph of each meat. This result suggested possible co-movement of meat prices in rural and urban market in the study area. The Pearson correlation coefficient of each of the respective pair of rural and urban price of meats revealed significant linear symmetric relationships. The bivariate Granger causality test revealed bi-directional relationships between the rural and urban price of all sampled meats in the State. The co-integration test revealed the presence of co-integration relationship between the rural and urban meats used in the analysis. The coefficients of market integration in the rural meat price equations converge to unity or law of one price which connotes high degree of market integration in the long run. The results of the error correction model (ECM) confirm the existence of the short run market integration between the rural and urban prices of meats in the study area. The rural prices of meats adjusted faster to the stable state in the long run than their respective urban prices. The index of market connection (IMC) supported the existence of the short run market integration between meat prices in rural and urban markets. Based on the findings, it is recommended that, the Akwa Ibom State government should continue to provide marketing infrastructures and reduce sources of externality cost in order to improve further the symmetric nature of information flow among meats markets in the state. Also, individuals, trade unions, NGOs’ and government should established market information units and awareness programmes on mass media to facilitate efficient communication or flows of meat market information in the state.