Marketing Strategies and Export of Iranian Medicinal Plants

Abstract

In order to reduce dependence of Iranian economy on crude oil exports and shift to a multipurpose export economy, export policy orientations should be changed to the benefit of exporting non-oil goods, including agricultural exports. Share of the agricultural sector in non-oil exports to Iran shows that this trend is declining. Therefore, attention should be paid to the expansion of this sector's exports. Statistics and time series of the past years shows that despite Iran's good rank in the production and cultivation level of medicinal plants, the export status of these products is not in a good position. Among the agricultural products, medicinal plants are one of the most important agricultural export items in Iran which play a great role in creating added value for the agricultural sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of marketing strategies on export of Iranian <em>medicinal</em> plants. Necessary data were collected from 30 herbal exporting companies for 2011 – 2017, using simple random sampling. Due to the combined nature of the data collected and the export impact of its amount in previous years, the dynamic panel model was chosen as the superior model. On the other hand, this study attempts to identify the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities for export of medicinal plants. The results showed that differentiation strategies, market development and product development have positive and significant impact on export performance of exporting companies. Market penetration strategy, although not statistically significant, also varies with the export value of medicinal plants.