i AN ASSESSMENT OF TOMATO PRICE VARIABILITY IN LUSAKA ...

800 and quartile 3 is the second highest expenditure group with a mean expenditure of
ZMK 1, 508, 205.
The results show that, tomatoes rank first in the first expenditure quartiles, while tied
with rape in first rank in the quartiles 2 through 4. Among the households in the third and
fourth expenditure quartiles, tomatoes had a budget share of 9% of the total FFV
expenditures of the household while the households in the income quartile 2 and 1 had
10% and 13% budget share of tomatoes respectively, over all FFV items. Both rape and
tomatoes have the largest budget share among the relatively poor households (rape forms
a very prominent part of relish eaten with nshima 10 for these households), they both have
the same pattern across all the quartiles falling from 13% to 9% for tomatoes, and 12% to
8% for rape.. This basically shows the importance of tomatoes regardless of the
household income levels.
10
Nsima is a maize meal pulp made from maize flour and is the main staple consumed by households in
Zambia.
18