Prioritizing Export Target Markets of Tomato Iran Using Numerical Taxonomy Analysis

Increasing the production and export of tomato crops that Iran has in its production has a comparative advantage can make it possible to achieve more valuable revenues. In addition, developing export of this product is very important in order to export of non-oil products. The purpose of this study is identification of the best export target markets for Iran tomato product. Also, in this study, numerical taxonomy method has been used to select potential export target markets. The used data are related 2001 to 2017 period. In this study, has used five coefficients of fluctuation of rank, proximity coefficient, average coefficient of rank, average coefficient of share and share fluctuation coefficient. The results of this study show that According to identified priorities, Iraq is the first target market for exporting tomatoes and then countries of Afghanistan ranked second and Russia ranked third. Persian Gulf States ranked respectively in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar has the last rank. With the exception of the United Arab Emirates, the rest of the Gulf States are ranked. Also the results show that current export market of tomato has significant difference with potential markets. So, use of export guiding policies toward potential target market has suggested.