Due to increased production of saffron, Iran has been looking for new export markets during recent years. However, a persistent question has been which countries are suitable for export and what criteria are to be employed to recognize those countries. Thus, this article tries to estimate the "Iran's export capacity for saffron" and recognize "its target markets" for 2002-06. The results are as follows: Fifty countries import saffron, but only 12 countries including, inter alia, the United States, France, Japan and Saudi Arabia are major importers thereof. Major importers of Iran's saffron are the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Italy, Saudi Arabia, France and Sweden. Iran's maximum export potential index for saffron suggest that 12 countries including Spain, Italy, the United States, Sweden, France, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Argentina and Germany have most import potential for Iran's saffron. By virtue of idle import potential index for Iran's saffron in absolute terms (million dollars) during 2002-06, the United States, Japan, Sweden and the United Kingdom emerge as the best target markets for Iran's saffron. According to the same index in relative terms (percent), the best target markets for Iran's saffron are the United States, Hong Kong, Belgium, Singapore, Japan, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Norway and Italy with over 50 percent of their import potential being idle. Using eight criteria examined in the article reveals that countries such as the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Norway, Belgium and Italy are among the most important target markets for Iran's saffron.

in recent decades, the internationalization of trade and companies' engagement in the global market has been found with a double significance. Planning and investment to increase the share of non-oil exports in total exports and reform its combination to export of goods and services with higher technology are of approaches of vision plan that export of Construction Services is of its characteristics. Construction Services which are one of the major fundamentals in economic development of countries encompass a series of methods and tools that provide the possibility to supply goods and services within community by optimal use of resources and manufacturing agentsincluding capital, raw materials and manpower. This study has aimed to rank export target market of Construction Services. For this, by applying Walvoord's target market selection model, the indicatoraffecting market selection using questionnaire have been determined, that 14 indicators have been selected, and weight of indicators have been calculated by incremental power method, and then the countries which have imported Construction Services from Iran in recent seven years have been prioritized by resolving linear assignment problem using software Gomez, of which Lebanon, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan have been recognized as the superior countries.

The main purpose of this qualitative research was to design an export marketing strategy model for tea products to target markets. The statistical population was composed of all experts in the field of this research topic (N = 332). The sample size was determined as equal to the statistical population. Second-hand data used for data collection and a semi-structured interview was used as the research instrument. Five series of interviews were conducted with the experts. In order to identify the status of tea export, the first interview was done with tea exporters during 2016 (87 people were interviewed). The second round of interviews was done with factory holders to investigate the status of green tea leaf and dry tea as well as the respective model (170 companies were interviewed). In the third step, the experts and practitioners (50 people) were interviewed to provide the research model. The fourth round of interviews was carried out with 10 experts of the tea research center and organization to examine the status of tea gardens, green tea, and dry tea production and the main model. Finally, some Iranian business and economic advisers were interviewed in the fifth step. The results showed that direct export-business partner was the most suitable method to enter the target markets. Participation in relevant fairs in the target country and invitation and presence of traders of target markets in Iran were determined as the most appropriate method for market penetration and development strategy. Low price with more discounts was seen as a more suitable pricing strategy. Top quality and top packaging were selected as the best methods regarding product strategy. The selection of top distributors in each country and chain stores were determined for the product distribution. Using the brand of target market, digital marketing, fair, and social networks were recognized as a more suitable promotion strategy. Gardener and factory holder cooperation, agricultural improvement of tea gardens, promoting the quality of green leaf of tea, and using modern types of machinery for cultivation and harvesting in production strategy were the most important production strategy. In addition, differentiation through special taste and smell of Iranian tea, high quality, and attractive packaging design and type were recognized as the best differentiation strategy.

Attention to medical plants due to high potential of production in Iran and developing export of this product is very important, in order to export of non-oil products. The purpose of this study is to identify the best export target markets for this product by using numerical taxonomy method. The used data are related to the year 2011. In this study seven indicators of import towards the world have been used: the per capita income, economic growth, distance of countries, import price, trade barriers, and the number of countries that export goods for desired country. The results of the study showed that present destinations of this product have not been choice correctly according to the export target market priorities. According to identified priorities, Hong Kong is the first target market for exporting medical plants and then countries including USA, China, India, Japan, Germany, South Korea, France, Taiwan and Spain will be the next priorities. Therefore, the current export markets of medical plants have significant difference with potential markets. So, the use of export guiding policies toward potential target market has suggested.

Iran is capable to produce and supply a variety of ornamental plants owing to a various and suitable climate, low labor force, sufficient radiation, large amount of celluloses loss and its closeness to big consumption markets. Despite of these natural talents, the share of Iran's production and global trade of ornamental plants is very small. The objectives of this paper are to evaluate Iran's ornamental plants export by using linear and goal programming methods. Data were gained from commercial customs yearbooks and United nations Organization statistics. Results showed that Jordan and United Arab Emirates are the main markets for Iran in trees and shrubs which bear edible fruit and nuts. The results also indicate that Azerbaijan and United Arab Emirates in roses, Qatar in perennial plants, forest trees and vegetable, Russia in fresh cut flower, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Kuwait in dried, dyed and bleached cut flower and Kuwait in Christmas trees and Normann's and noble firs are the prior and best markets for Iran. According to high potential of ornamental plants import in Persian Gulf area and Middle Asia countries, to increase Iranian portion in global markets it is necessary to make in Iran such policies for solving the problems of ornamental plants production and export.

Increasing the production and export of tomato crops that Iran has in its production has a comparative advantage can make it possible to achieve more valuable revenues. In addition, developing export of this product is very important in order to export of non-oil products. The purpose of this study is identification of the best export target markets for Iran tomato product. Also, in this study, numerical taxonomy method has been used to select potential export target markets. The used data are related 2001 to 2017 period. In this study, has used five coefficients of fluctuation of rank, proximity coefficient, average coefficient of rank, average coefficient of share and share fluctuation coefficient. The results of this study show that According to identified priorities, Iraq is the first target market for exporting tomatoes and then countries of Afghanistan ranked second and Russia ranked third. Persian Gulf States ranked respectively in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar has the last rank. With the exception of the United Arab Emirates, the rest of the Gulf States are ranked. Also the results show that current export market of tomato has significant difference with potential markets. So, use of export guiding policies toward potential target market has suggested.

Despite the widespread use of random attraction models to determine the efficiency of export target markets, it seems that this model is not suitable for countries that suffer from sanctions and government interventions with non-economic goals. The purpose of the current research is to modify the aforementioned model for economies like Iran, where internal and external interventions cause many restrictions in exports. In this study, the data of 39 target markets in the period of 2001-2020 have been used to determine the efficiency of Iran's saffron export. For this purpose, the modified random boundary gravity model has been used to measure efficiency. Also, in this study, the restrictions governing the foreign policy of a country in the field of trade were considered. In the proposed model, the variables of crisis, friendly political relations and economic sanctions, which were entered as imaginary numbers in most of the previous studies, were investigated in this study using fuzzy logic technique. The results show that Iran's export to any country is not 100% efficient. During the long-term period, the highest efficiency of Iranian saffron has been in the markets of Spain, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates, and the lowest is related to the countries of Vietnam, Oman, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Also, the results show that there is a significant potential for the export of Iranian saffron. The biggest export potential and Iran's export gap is related to the United Arab Emirates.

1- INTRODUCTION    The expansion of trade among countries in recent years is one of the main reasons for economic growth. In order to achieve export development, it is necessary to use a principled and modern method to identify, determine and prioritize export target markets. In this regard, Bushehr province in the economic field (production, trade and services) with issues such as growth based on a single product and sector economy, weak technical and specialized knowledge in economic sectors, traditional production methods and lack of investment platforms in the sectors private and public aspect. Therefore, in the present research, in order to develop non-oil exports at the regional and national levels, by benefiting from the theories of comparative advantage, the activities with comparative advantage in export in Bushehr province are identified.   2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK     Based on different theories in the field of comparative advantage, countries or regions being rich in resources cause countries (regions) to have a potential relative advantage for exporting manufactured goods related to resource abundance. Also, the export of goods should be based on the trade costs and market size of the target countries. Therefore, according to the proposed theories, the export of goods based on the comparative advantage and the concentration of companies in a geographical area, while enjoying the benefits of forming an industrial cluster, causes the organization of industries and the specialization of activities.   3- METHODOLOGY     In this research, the cluster index method is used to investigate the concentration of industrial activities in the province. Due to this issue comparative advantage is one of the key concepts in international trade theory, and also one of the indicators that has been widely used in this field is the Balasa Revealed Comparative Advantage Index. After identification of the concentrated activities through the Balasa index and Balasa symmetry, the concentrated industrial activities with relative export advantage are identified and then based on a series of indicators, the target countries of Bushehr province are prioritized by using the numerical taxonomy method.   4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION    In the recent research, by benefiting from the theories of comparative advantage and using indices such as cluster index, Balassa index and Balassa symmetry index, concentrated industrial activities were identified and then has been determined the activities with comparative advantage in exports in the years 2005 to 2019. In the following, considering the importance of non-oil export development based on five relative import indicators, the number of countries participating in imports, the lack of advantage of the target country in product production, the average tariff and the distance between the target country and Bushehr province using the numerical taxonomy method of the most important markets were identified as the target of the selected product in the last statistical year (2021). According to the results obtained in the recent research, the activity of producing chemicals and chemical products has a relative advantage of export. Also, based on the final prioritization of the countries based on all the introduced indicators, it was determined that the countries of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Qatar are the most important target countries for the chemical products of Bushehr province, respectively, they have the first to fourth priority.   5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS    Bushehr province has opportunities and strengths in various fields of oil, gas, petrochemicals, power plants, agriculture and fisheries, mines, nuclear facilities, marine industries, commercial activities and proximity to the Persian Gulf. The results of calculating the cluster index indicate that each city in Bushehr province has a series of concentrated activities. Each of these activities can be susceptible to the formation of industrial clusters with a more detailed investigation. The results obtained from the calculations of revealed and revealed symmetric relative advantage indicators based on the statistics of added value and export of activities also showed that among the concentrated activities susceptible to cluster formation in Bushehr province, the activity of coke production and oil refining products; production of chemicals and chemical products. The production of pharmaceuticals and chemical and herbal medicinal products has a relative advantage in export. In addition, the results of the prioritization of the target countries showed that the countries of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Qatar are the most important target countries for the chemical products of Bushehr province. According to these results, it is suggested: It is possible to form an industrial cluster in the production of chemical substances and chemical products in Asaluiye city. Regional imbalances caused by the concentration of population and facilities in a province occur within a region, which are reduced by identifying and developing susceptible areas.

This research is an endeavor to delineate the structure of world (product trade) market for date, the structure of Iran's date export and its trade partners, and target markets for Iran's date export. Thus, its major parts are as follows: introduction, theoretical and methodological (for both market structure and target markets), world product and trade structure of date, and conclusion and suggestion. According to the findings, the world product structure of date has been an oligopolistic one alone with fluctuations during 1989-2001.A supply - side examination of date world trade reflects a modification and mitigation in the nature of export vis-a-vis the existence of an oligopolistic structure in import. A comparative study of world trade structure of date indicated that import is more oligopolistic than export. As to the structure of Iran's date export to his trade partners, importers of Iran's date export to his trade partners, importers of Iran's date have not been of the same position: during 1979-88, Iran's bargaining power vis-a-vis other date importers was continuously diminishing during 1989-2001 and particularly during the first development- plan, the monopolistic power of those partners/importers declined due to increasing number of date importing countries. It is worth noting that the major Iran's date importing countries oftener-export Iran's date to final consumer markets.In this research 29 countries have been recognized as target markets of Iran's date export and the research is concluded with some final remarks and policy suggestions.

Iran`s pharmaceutical products market has faced fluctuations over time. Suitable market selection is necessary for stability of pharmaceutical exports. This study aimed to determine the structure of the world pharmaceutical market and to identify the target of Iranian pharmaceutical export. T do so, concentration ratios and Herfindahl index were used to address the world pharmaceutical market from 2001 to 2012. Also, a composite index was used to identify the target markets of Iran’ s pharmaceutical industry. The results showed that the export side of world pharmaceutical trade has shifted to open oligopoly, thereby decreasing the monopolistic power of exporters. The import side, however, follows monopolistic competition. It has been observed that the structure of Iran’ s pharmaceutical export is shifting to open oligopoly; though, pharmaceutical importers from Iran have not been stable. Moreover, 27 countries were identified as target markets. Due to significant differences between the current and potential export destinations of Iran’ s pharmaceutical products, exporters should choose suitable strategies in order to diversify export markets. Such mechanisms as setting preferential tariffs on the basis of bilateral agreements, following effective advertisment, and paying attention to global consumers’ preferences can be used to develop Iran’ s pharmaceutical export to target countries.