Study of market structure and marketing system of flowers and ornamental plants in Iran: a case study of Cut-Rose flower market in Esfahan

Producing of flowers and ornamental plants in Iran has some challenges and failure in the market structure and marketing of these products. In this study, we evaluated the different marketing channels of flowers and ornamental plants in the existing market structure according to economic criteria and the characteristics of market structure. Cut-Rose and Esfahan Province were selected as the production and product region samples, respectively. The results showed that producers share from consumer price and marketing efficiency is low. However, in this system due to high losses, there is low technical efficiency. Although, due to high retail price to farm price, price efficiency is high and therefore the total efficiency is also high. Thus, the share of other marketing factors from this high ratio is more than producers. The study of market structure showed that the goods are non-homogeneous and entrance requirement is hard and combined with uncertainty. Therefore, the marketing system of flowers and ornamental plants is inefficient and the market structure is a non-competitive structure. This condition that causes incomplete information in the market, will not allow the possibility of production planning for producers and as a result of excess supply or demand, the level of price volatility in wholesale is high. While the retail price has less volatility and reduced market price is not transferred to the consumer in many times. Therefore, the lowest and highest possible price is respectively received and paid by producers and consumers. In this regard, reform of flower market structure was proposed in Iran.