Barriers to the Efficiency of the Olive Value Chain in Rural Areas of Tarom County, Iran

Purpose- Value chain development is an approach to rural economic development, which promotes the development of businesses and farmers' access to the market, reduces poverty, increases income and sustains food security in rural areas.Design/Methodology/Approach- This study is mixed qualitative-quantitative research, and applied research and in terms of purpose. A non-probability sampling method was used in the research. The main method of collecting research data was semi-structured interviews with the selected sample. The interviews were continued until the theoretical saturation. At the end, 38 individuals participated in the interviews. Interview notes were classified and analyzed in three stages: open, central and selective coding. Ultimately, 20 respondents were selected to answer the questionnaires after reviewing the content. The data of the questionnaires were collected and combined as a direct input matrix in MICMACFindings- Barriers to olive value chain efficiency were identified: 30 criteria, 10 subcategories and 5 main categories. The efficiency of the olive value chain in Tarom County depends on a proper marketing management, providing infrastructure, policymaking, planning and also the organizations and trade unions. These factors were the most important and influential factors that had high cohesion and influence among other factors. In contrast, variability of the purchase and sale price, taking advantage of buying the product below the price by the middlemen, pre-sale of the product by farmers, more product waste during storage, transferring the olives to processing factories in the county are the dependence criteria.Practical implications- Given that the olive value chain in Tarom County is not efficient, its efficiency depends on a proper marketing management, providing infrastructure, policymaking, planning and also the organizations and trade unions. Most of the mentioned factors are dependent on the institutional actors and agricultural managers, and indicates their important role in enhancing the productivity of the olive value chain.Originality/Value- The results of this research can be a good way to solve problems and obstacles to agricultural development in rural areas.