The objective of this study was to identify possibilities of linking organic producers with the market, particularly tourist hoteliers market as an alternative to export market. Linking producers to market was envisaged as one of the ways to boost organic production in the region, by increasing production and access to market. This would in turn increase the income of smallholder organic producers and improve their livelihoods.

The study found that, there were possibilities of linking smallholder organic producers with the tourist market (some were already accessing the market) and it also highlighted the challenges patterning the linkage, such as, limitations of locally made inputs and insecticides, limited consumers’ awareness on the demand side that resulted into no differentiation in prices received, for example, no organic mark/labels on organic vegetables in market. It also suggests to policy makers, NGOs and organic sector the important role of institutions in facilitating market access, input suppliers in ensuring sustainability in production, storage and processing facilities in reducing post-harvest losses and how they affect the sector growth in production.

The study has identified factors for low production and limitations to access the market for organic vegetables. These factors include, limited awareness to consumers and demand by tourist hotels, for example, reliability, sustainability, steady quantity and capacity to supply

The study is important as it highlights the challenges and opportunities for linkage, for example, opportunities such as closeness of producers to other actors and challenges, such as, limitations in production due to low input production. Organic production is beneficial for producers in the sense that, if the challenges found in the research will be addressed by policy makers, NGOs and organic sector actors, the access to market will be improved and boosts organic production.

The major gap in the study is on understanding the preference of tourists and demand for organic vegetables. As this study only focused on the tourist hotels, there is still a need to have direct interviews with tourists as it will inform us more on awareness and demand for organic products.

Figure: Conceptually what the study entailed.