Identification and Prioritization Obstacles to Agricultural Exports of Mazandaran Province with Hybrid Approach

Mazandaran province becomes one of the potential areas for agricultural production in Iran that with proper use of this potential can play a significant role in non-oil exports in the country. The main agricultural products of the province include citrus, flowers and ornamental plants and kiwi, which have a comparative advantage. But despite having a comparative advantage in the production of these products, unfortunately in the export stage and in international markets due to the existence of internal and external communication and restrictions, this advantage has been lost. The main purpose of this research was to identify and prioritize the barriers to the export of agricultural products in Mazandaran province, in which, while identifying the barriers to the export of these products, these barriers were also prioritized. This research is a descriptive and survey type. In the qualitative part of this study, the statistical population of this research is 8 agricultural export experts of Mazandaran province and in the quantitative part of the research, the statistical sample is all exporters active in the field of agricultural products export. The method and tool of data collection is library studies and field research that was done through a questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured using Cronbach's alpha method and SPSS software, And its validity was done by confirmatory factor analysis with PLS software and to prioritize the approved barriers, we used FAHP multi-criteria decision making method. The results of this study show that export barriers include barriers related to the country of origin, which were more important than barriers related to the company and barriers related to the destination country. Among the components of these barriers, insufficient incentives for export, insufficient knowledge and information about potential markets and inappropriate monetary and exchange rate policies in the country of origin, respectively, have been introduced as the most important barriers to agricultural exports in Mazandaran province. At the end of this study, appropriate solutions were provided to remove these obstacles and improve the export of agricultural products in Mazandaran province.