Identify and rank the challenges facing the saffron supply chain and provide proposed solutions

Saffron as a strategic commodity and competitive advantage in the development of trade in our beloved country has always been considered by experts and executives. However, there are problems in many parts of the supply chain of this valuable product ,The main purpose of this study was to identify and rank the challenges facing the saffron supply chain and provide proposed solutions

This research is descriptive and in terms of applied purpose and its nature is correlational. The study population is experts and elites in the production and sale of saffron. The samples were 100 people and the sampling method was purposeful and available. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. Its validity was confirmed by professors and experts. Cronbach's alpha was used to evaluate the reliability of the questionnaires, which was 0.911 for the whole questionnaire. Research data are analyzed with SPSS and PLS software

Analyzes show that saffron supply chain challenges include final customer challenges, producer challenges and distributor challenges. These challenges are due to pricing, innovation, packaging, quality of raw materials, marketing, competitors, etc., respectively.

The results show that according to the path coefficient, it can be said that the most important challenge of the saffron supply chain is the challenges of distributors, followed by the challenges of producers and the challenges of the final customer