Maya Youssef Al-Abdala(1)* Dr. Safwan Mutha Abou -Assaf(1) Remal Slman Saab(1) and Samar Hossam Aldeen Al-Ashaoush(1)
(1). Economic and Social Studies Directorate, Sewida Research Center. General Commission for Scientific Agricultural Research (GCSAR), Damascus, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Eng. Maya Youssef Al-Abdala. E-Mail: mayaabdala6@gmail.com).
Received: 10/04/2017 Accepted: 04/05/2017
Abstract
The aim of this research was to analyze the current structure of Syrian apple exports, and highlighting the relative advantage of this crop and its competitive position on the markets of the key importing countries of Syrian apples. The analysis was based on secondary data published by FAO during 2000-2013. Descriptive statistical analyses were used, in addition to estimates of time trend equations to identify the evolution in quantity, value and price of both Syrian apple exports and imports, and to determine certain indicators of export competitiveness, besides to applicate the linear programming model for optimal distribution of Syrian apple exports. The most important result was that Egypt ranked first as the most important export market for Syrian apples, accounting an average of 51.49 % in terms of volume, and 55.7 % in terms of value of Syrian apple exports. Syria has a clear relative advantage of apples, the value of this index fluctuated around the general average, which was 5.14. The index of value stability of the exports reached the best level, which achieved in average 2.41 %, followed by price and volume of exports. Syrian apple export has a relative advantage in Italy, United States, Chile, France, Holland, New Zealand, Belgium, Spain, Germany, and Austria, where the ratios of the price of Syrian exports to the price of exports of each country during the period of the study were on average of approximately 77 %, 71 %, 99 %, 71 %, 73 %, 76 %, 85 %, 98 %, 83 %, and 85 %, respectively. Assuming an increase of 20 % in export availability, the results of the linear programming model showed that the total revenue was 8 457 893 000 $, which is 21 % higher than the actual revenue. The results also showed that the additional quantities of the exported as a percentage of the increase in availability would be 87.27 % for the UAE and 12.73 % for Egypt, without losing any of the other markets. The study recommended the necessity of being an integrated policy to encourage agricultural exports, especially for crops and products which Syria has a relative advantage, and competitiveness, also the availability of database to provide an information to serve the production and export sectors.
Key words: Apple crop, Clear relative advantage, Instability coefficient, Price competitiveness, Linear programming.
Full paper in Arabic: PDF