From farm gate to market stall: How supply chain and macroeconomic conditions shape retail price adjustments among agri-food retailers in selected markets in Ghana's Central Region

Résumé

Retail food prices in Ghana are usually read as an echo of what happens on farms and in wholesale yards. The stall, however, is where costs, spoilage risk and customer resistance actually collide. Drawing on Price Transmission Theory, Transaction Cost Economics and bounded rationality, this study examined how supply chain and macroeconomic conditions shape retail adjustment in the Kasoa, Kotokuraba and Mankessim markets of Ghana's Central Region. A pragmatic multistrand design combined an unweighted survey of 450 retailers with six explanatory interviews and nine structured observation sessions. Retailers adjusted through a portfolio of price, quantity, grade, credit and margin responses rather than through price alone. Supply chain costs carried the strongest adjusted association with adjustment, and short shelf life and seasonal scarcity raised its urgency. Macroeconomic exposure remained significant after controls, yet reached retailers mainly through procurement, transport and weakened purchasing power. Market context did not moderate the cost relationship statistically, although it plainly shaped when and how retailers responded. Ghanaian agrifood retailers therefore act as constrained intermediaries who redistribute shocks across consumers, products and their own margins. Policy built on posted price monitoring alone will miss most of that adjustment.