Industry overview
What is shaping horticulture
Horticulture spans fruit, vegetables, flowers and plantation crops, with fast-moving prices and a high risk of post-harvest loss. Growers sell through mandis, traders and increasingly direct-to-buyer channels.
- Prices swing daily in mandi markets
- Post-harvest handling decides how much produce reaches buyers
- Organised retail and exporters set new quality standards
Client background
A vegetable seed company, working in Kenya, South Africa & Egypt. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A vegetable seed company
- Sector
- Horticulture
- Team engaged
- Market Research
- Services
- Business panel, Offline data collection (CATI), Reporting & insights
Client challenge
The company’s dealers stocked several competing brands, and the client wanted to know how dealers decided which seeds to recommend to growers.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: strengthening a vegetable seed brand’s dealer network.
- Understand the views, needs and behaviour of seed dealers.
- Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
- Give the client evidence it can act on within 5 weeks.
Target audience
The work focused on 420 seed dealers.
- seed dealers420
Audiences we typically reach in horticulture
Growers and orchard ownersCommission agents and tradersNurseriesFresh-produce retailersExporters and packhouses
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Kenya, South Africa & Egypt. Markets: South Africa and Egypt.
- South Africa
- Egypt
Research methodology
A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.
- 1Brief
- 2Dealer telephone survey
- 3Dealer visits
- 4Insight
We interviewed dealers by phone about stocking decisions, margins, returns policies, field support and grower feedback, then visited a sample of shops to observe displays and recommendations.
Business panelOffline data collection (CATI)Reporting & insights
Sampling strategy
- seed dealers
- 420
- Business respondents were screened on role, company size and involvement in the decision before being invited.
- Online respondents were drawn from verified panel members who matched the screening criteria, with quotas on key profile attributes.
- Telephone contacts were dialled from verified lists, with quotas tracked live by the field team.
Data collection
- Telephone interviews were run from our CATI centre, with calls monitored for quality.
- The online survey was mobile-friendly and offered in respondents' languages.
Data quality & validation
- Live call monitoring and recording review
- Call-back verification
- Digital fingerprinting and duplicate checks
- Attention, speed and straight-lining checks
- Review of open-ended answers
- Logic and range checks on the final data
- Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures
Data analysis
- Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
- Significance testing on the differences that mattered
Key findings
- Dealers recommended brands that accepted returns of unsold seed and provided field staff during disease outbreaks.
Dealer recommendations follow risk-sharing and support, not just margins.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: dealer recommendations follow risk-sharing and support, not just margins.
- Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: dealers recommended brands that accepted returns of unsold seed and provided field staff during disease outbreaks.
- Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.
Business impact
- The company revised its returns policy and placed agronomists in its weakest regions.
What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Insight report and management presentation
- Cleaned data file and data tables
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: what quality standards do modern buyers expect?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.