Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• morteza Yaqubi ¹
• Mostafa Yaghoobzadeh ²
• Moein Tosan ³

¹ 1 Department of Agricultural Economics, Agriculture Faculty, University of Torbat Heydarieh, Iran; 2 Saffron Institute, University of Torbat Heydarieh, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Water Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Birjand University

³ PhD. student of Water Resources, Water Engineering Department, Birjand University

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 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."‎

Keywords

• Market challenges
• Factor analysis
• Ranking
• Non-parametric tests
• Agricultural productivity

Main Subjects

• Economics and Marketing