AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE COMPETITIVE SITUATION OF EGYPTIAN EXPORTS OF STRAWBERRIES

Abstract

Strawberries are considered one of the most promising export crops which Egyptian economic policy aims to maximize their return by increase their exports, where occupies third place in terms of the relative importance of the value of exports of vegetables after each of onions and potatoes. Egypt comes in the sixth place among the world's exporters of strawberry, with market share represented 3.4% of the total value of world exports on average of the period 2009 to 2013. Egyptian Strawberries exports distributed among a group of major markets; the European Union comes in the front of the markets, which accounts for nearly 59.5% of the value of Egyptian exports of strawberries, followed by the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) markets by 28.8% on the average for the period (2008-2012), while the remaining amount is distributed to other markets. The search indicated that, the markets of Belgium, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom and Germany are the most important export markets for the Egyptian exports of strawberries in the average during the period (2008 -2012) where all represent approximately 63.3% of the total value of exports of Egyptian strawberries during the same period, thus the study has been focusing on these markets for the analysis of competitive conditions for exports of Egyptian strawberries. Hence, this research aims to shed light on the current situation of Egyptian exports of strawberries and its competitiveness position within the major importing global markets for strawberries and how to promote these exports By studying the competitive position of exports Egyptian strawberries among the selected markets , Egypt was ranked the third one in terms of market share in all of the Belgium and the German markets, where the average of market share for Egypt to those markets about 12.4% and 2.4%, respectively, while Egypt comes in the fifth place among countries exporting strawberry to the United Kingdom market , which its market share is estimated at 5.3% of the total value of imports of the market, but for the Saudi market Egypt comes in the first with an average of market share estimated at 73% during the same period. All of Spain , the Netherlands, Poland, Morocco, Israel, USA are Considered the most competitive countries for Egyptian exports to those markets of strawberries exports. The indicators of the competitive advantage of the price of strawberries indicated that Egypt enjoys with price advantage against competing countries in the Saudi market and to a less than ratio within each of the Belgium and the UK market, with the exception of Poland, Morocco and Spain markets. On the other hand, it appears the weak competitive position of the price in the German market, this returns to the intensity of price competition in those markets to where these countries belong to the European Union, and enjoys wit of preferable advantages in addition to the enjoyment of a spatial advantage in European markets, which reduces the cost of transportation or shipping. In terms of the indicator of export strength to most competitors countries,