Investigating Iran's Saffron Virtual Land Exports to Business Partners: An Important Policy Analysis

Saffron is one of the most important export products of Iran. Due to the importance of climate in its cultivation, few countries have mass-produced saffron, making Iran the biggest producer and exporter of saffron in the world. However, it is necessary to examine the virtual land trade for purposeful policies and intelligent farm management. Therefore, the export of virtual land of this product has been studied in 2002-2007, and the factors affecting it have been determined using the gravity model. The results show that the average export of virtual land in Iran in the mentioned time period was about 41.5 thousand hectares. The highest amount of virtual land exports with 116.6 thousand hectares was obtained in 2008, and the lowest export of virtual land With 19.2 thousand hectares was obtained in 2007, probably because of the high yield of saffron production and low saffron exports. European and Asian countries are the most important destinations of Iran's virtual land, respectively, based on the results of the gravity model, countries that have relatively less agricultural land compared to Iran, and also countries with higher incomes and populations have more demand for saffron imports, which results in more exports of virtual land. Based on the results, it is suggested that policies be undertaken in order to improve productivity of saffron production and reduce the export of virtual land to importing countries with emphasis on maintaining the quality of saffron and paying attention to regional production capacities.