Iran’s poultry meat export status in the Middle East region

Agriculture is literally a matter of life and death in the developing world. Ninety-six per cent of the world’s farmers – approximately 1.3 billion people – live in developing countries. In the rural areas of the developing world, close to 900 million people live on less than $1 a day.The Doha mandate encouraged the hope that dumping of subsidised exports from rich countries would finally be brought to an end, that market access for developing countries would be improved,and that developing countries would continue to be permitted to use tariffs and other border measures as part of their rural development strategies. In the Middle East,agriculture is the largest contributor to the Gross Domestic Product and foreign exchange,and is the second largest employer.Yet despite its economic importance it is largely overlooked in the development of new technologies and in the allocation of trained human resources. Agriculture in the Middle East focuses on new ways to improve food production, the challenges of a largely arid land, and managing limited agricultural resources.Agriculture is one of the oldest income sources in Iran. Close to one-third of the working population are engaged in agriculture and related industries such as poultry farming.Agriculture plays a significant role in the Iranian economy. At now agriculture account for an average of 27.8 percent of the GDP, and employ 26.1 percent of the labor force.Also agricultural products account for 47 percent of non-oil exports.Poultry species play important roles in the livelihood of human beings throughout the world both in ways that are quantifiable economically and in others that cannot and are therefore not captured in economic indices such as national GDP estimates.Poultry meat contribute directly to food security because there are no taboos against their consumption.With regard to F.A.O annual reports(2004) ,Iran has been rated 1st producer and also 1st exporter of poultry meat in the Middle East region. Capital stock in this industry consists of Breeding Farms (lines) ,Grand Parents(GP), Parent stock (PS), Broilers, Slaughter-Houses and dependant industries of governmental and private sectors is 4000 Billions Rials (5 Billions $). The current production is related to 70% of production units potential ,so with regard to remained considerable potential,it is necessary to make of them in an optimum rate. Therefore poultry products exports particularly poultry meat can be used for increasing of income and development for poultry industry. The objective of this paper was to study the dynamics on comparative advantage of Iran’s poultry meat export in the Middle East market.