An evaluation of the comparative advantage of pistachio export and its effective factors

Abstract

Export is one of the most reliable ways for economic growth of every country provided that it is correctly planned and the exporting products of that country can compete with other products in the world market. A product is merely visible in world market, if the exporting company, first, has comparative advantages related to that product and second, it has developed and made productive those advantages with appropriate and correct planning. Regarding the importance and value of non-oil exports in Iran and its currency-making value, it has been endeavored to study and assess the comparative advantage of exporting pistachio and the factors affecting it. The population of the research data related to the variables of currency rate and its changes, exporting price, domestic production, domestic price and gross national product (GNP) were collected quantitatively through library research from 1981 to 2012. In this research, BLSA coefficient (RCA) is used to obtain comparative advantage of pistachio export. The supply function estimation of pistachio was obtained using regression by SPSS Software to find the factors affecting the supply function of pistachio export. In this study, some factors including currency rate and its fluctuations, exporting price, domestic price, domestic production and gross national product were chosen. The results obtained by the research indicated that, in general, pistachio export has high relative advantage but two factors of gross national product and domestic price have a positive relation with pistachio export influencing the model.