Measuring the Competitiveness of Saudi Arabia’s Fruit Date Exports

Abstract This study is to measure competitiveness and its effect on the quantity of Saudi exports of dates in the international market between 1990- 2011. In order to measure the competitiveness of date exports, the study depended on a number of indexes such as the revealed comparative advantage and the competitive advantage. The study also depended on the analysis of simple regression to study the relationship between the Saudi exports of dates and the competitiveness indexes during the study period. This study showed that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the main market for Saudi exports of dates, as it imported about 61.2%, followed by the United Kingdom (UK) at 12.8%, then Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, and Qatar at 3.8%, 1.5%, 1.4%, 1.1% and 1.1%, respectively between 2000 and 2011. The average of the revealed comparative advantage and the competitive advantage for Saudi exports of dates is 49.27 and 55.25 respectively. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is distinguished with the revealed comparative advantage and the competitive advantage for date exports between 1990 and 2011. The study showed that there is an increase by 10% in the competitive advantage for the exports of Saudi dates, resulting in an increase in Saudi exports of the same good by 10.37%. The study recommends the importance of increasing the competitiveness of Saudi exports of dates in the international market through technological advances used in packaging and storage. Additionally, the study recommends creating a new market for Saudi exports of dates by assigning commercial representation to prepare studies of external demands on date exports, and provide information about foreign consumer tastes to exporters. Commercial representation will also provide Saudi Arabia information about the quantity and type of dates that foreign consumers need, as well as the export prices of competitive countries in the international market.