Economics and Marketing
morteza Yaqubi; Mostafa Yaghoobzadeh; Moein Tosan
Abstract
Saffron is one of the most valuable agricultural products in the global market. Iran has the largest area under cultivation and the highest production of this crop. However, Iran's share of the value added of saffron in the global market is unacceptable and declining, which indicates the many ...
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Saffron is one of the most valuable agricultural products in the global market. Iran has the largest area under cultivation and the highest production of this crop. However, Iran's share of the value added of saffron in the global market is unacceptable and declining, which indicates the many challenges facing this industry. The purpose of this research is to explain the hidden structures of the challenges of production, processing, and marketing, and to rank the most important challenges of the saffron industry in Torbat Heydarieh, Iran, which is the world's saffron center. The necessary data were collected in 2023 using a convenience sample of 108 questionnaires. The challenges were ranked using Friedman's test and the weight coefficients obtained from factor analysis. Principal component analysis was used to identify the hidden patterns in the challenges of production, processing, and market (domestic and international) of the saffron industry in Torbat-e Heydarieh. The challenges were then ranked using Friedman's test and the weight coefficients obtained from factor analysis. The study found that the most important challenge facing the saffron industry in the production sector is climate change, in the processing sector is the need for high working capital, in the international markets is strict customs regulations, and in the domestic markets is the lack of cooperation of the rural cooperative to purchase the product. Factor analysis revealed that the most important hidden components in the production sector are "production instability" and "low production efficiency"; in the processing sector, "technical and infrastructural challenges" and "financial challenges"; in the domestic market, "lack of development of the domestic competitive market" and "weak domestic market institutions"; and in the international market, "lack of access to foreign markets" and "poor saffron quality in foreign markets."
