Analysis of Iran's Natural Honey Export Market Structure and Prioritization of Target Countries Based on Market Attractiveness Indicators

In Iran, due to the low capital requirement of beekeeping as well as the presence of many natural pastures with nectar-producing and pollinating plant species, this activity is very important. For a long time, honey has been known as one of the most widely consumed food products, which is considered as the most widespread traditional medicine in the country due to its unique medicinal properties. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the export performance of Iranian honey and prioritizing its target markets. For this purpose, the comparative advantage of honey export was first calculated using the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) and Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) indices during 2001-2018 and the structure of Iran's honey export market was determined using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI). Then, numerical taxonomy method was used to prioritize actual honey export markets. The results showed that the comparative advantage of honey fluctuated in the studied years and the competitive risk for Iranian honey exporters was higher than competitors as well as during the studied period, until 2008, the export market of world honey had a multilateral monopoly structure and from 2009 to 2018, it had an open multilateral monopoly structure, and the structure of Iran's honey export market and also the structure of the world honey import market were of a multilateral monopoly during this period. According to the studied indicators, the study results showed that the markets of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE and Malaysia were considered as the best markets for Iranian honey. Therefore, according to the target countries introduced based on the results of the prioritization in this study, it is appropriate that while paying attention to the private sector and supporting its active presence in these countries, the export market should be moved away from focusing on a few limited and traditional markets and also monopolizing in the purchase of target markets while being directed towards diversification in these markets.