Comparative Advantage of Fresh Agricultural Products for Export in Jiroft (Little India of Iran)

Abstract

Based on a wide range of native and foreign information banks and questionnaire resources, the current study accomplished use of a two-stage cluster sampling to investigate the comparative advantage and supportive coefficients of Exportable fresh fruit (citrus fruits and Cucurbits crops) from Jiroft in the south of Kerman Province, Iran, in the cultivation years 2012-13. After DRC (domestic resources cost) was determined via three currency scenarios (governmental, swapping and faire market). The results demonstrated advantage of producing citrus fruits in all the scenarios and Cucurbits crops in the two latter scenarios. Conforming to supportive coefficients, governmental interposition in crop market thwarts the subsidization process indirectly; the government’s indirect or hidden taxes on the products had a negative impact on the so-called positive governmental supports. In all, this resulted in EPC<1, being reflected in the interchanging and faire market currency scenarios. Regarding the comparative advantage of producing these crops under the faire currency conditions, the more the government interferences through pricing and allocation of governmental currency, the more decrease happen in the comparative advantage; this has caused an inappropriate and unbalanced support for inputs and crops. Accordingly, if the real exchange rate is fixed and the governmental interference in pricing is reduced, an actual economic value will be gained with production of these crops.