ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1500168
This article is part of the Research Topic Economic Viability In Integrated Crop - Livestock Systems View all 5 articles
Sustainable development of Iran's medicinal plant exports to the global value chain: A strategic analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1 Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
- 2 Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Alborz, Iran
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Iran, with a wide variety of climates, is among the top 20 countries in the world in terms of medicinal plant production, yet it does not have a significant position among the top exporting countries of medicinal plants and related products. Therefore, this exploratory descriptive research was conducted with the aim of analyzing the strategic development for sustainable export of medicinal plants from Iran to the global value chain using the SWOT technique. The study population consisted of three groups: experts in medicinal plants, managers and relevant experts in agricultural administrations, natural resources and watershed management, Agriculture and natural resources research and education center, as well as producers, traders, and managers in the field of medicinal plants, with 31 individuals selected purposefully as a sample using snowball sampling method. Based on the findings, 10 strengths, 25 weaknesses, 11 opportunities, and 16 threats were identified. The results indicated that the average weaknesses outweighed the strengths, and threats outweighed the opportunities. Therefore, the strategic quadrant of the SWOT matrix was placed on the WT (defensive strategies). Accordingly, some proposed strategies such as "Encouraging regional investment in the field of medicinal plant processing industries" and "Reforming and facilitating administrative bureaucracy to obtain necessary licenses for final product production" were suggested to play a more significant role in the development of medicinal plant production and processing. The findings of this study can be utilized by decisionmakers and relevant policymakers in planning and for sustainable development of Iranian medicinal plant exports in the global value chain.
Keywords: medicinal plants, Sustainable export, SWOT technique, Defensive strategies, sustainability indicators
Received: 22 Sep 2024; Accepted: 14 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shariatzadeh, Bijani and Bahadori. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Masoud Bijani, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, 14117-13116, Tehran, Iran
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