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The study examined the Organization, Cost and Return of Plantain Trade in Ondo State, Nigeria.
Multistage sampling technique was used to randomly select 100 respondents and primary data were used for
the study. The analytical methods included descriptive statistics, Gini-coefficient, gross margin analysis and
regression analysis. Results showed that out of the 100 respondents that were sampled, 93% were females
with the mean age of 33 years, 84% were married, 90% had minimum of primary education, 69% belonged to
market association while the mean household size and years of experience were 4.86 and 10 respectively. Gini
coefficient value (0.18) suggested the presence of high market concentration among the respondents. This was
corroborated by the Lorenze curve which was very sharp and implied a very low inequality in the total sales
made by the marketers. Market conduct showed that 61% of the marketers based their prices mainly on cost
of acquisition and the profitability analysis showed that plantain market was profitable given the value of the
gross margin as N141,157.00 and profit as N139,975.00. Cost of plantain and marital status were the factors
influencing sales revenue of plantain. It is therefore recommended that acquisition cost alongside other costs
should be considered in deciding selling price of plantain and small scale agro processing industries could be
enlightened and encouraged to exploit the potentials of plantain to achieve food security.
Keywords: Market Conduct, Nigeria, Plantain, Regression analysis, Trade