Study of Cut Flowers Marketing in Tehran Province Market (Case Study: Rose and Clove)

Abstract
Tehran province is one of the most important rose and clove production centers in the country. In spite of this importance, the supply of theses cut flowers is done in the form of traditional markets and without consideration of marketing principles. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate marketing of these products in Tehran province's market. For this purpose, 7 marketing channels were identified and the share of marketing agents, marketing margins, marketing cost coefficient and marketing efficiency were determined in these channels. The necessary data was collected from 124 producers, 96 wholesalers, 18 local intermediaries and 133 retailers of mentioned products from 11 townships of the province, which were selected by appropriate sampling methods in the year 2008. The results showed that Producer-Wholesaler of flower market-Retailer-Consumer channel, with the share of 81.6 and 81.3 percent, was the main channel of rose and clove cut flowers, respectively. Meanwhile, waste cost had allocated the highest share of marketing services cost in all marketing channels of these two products. The lowest marketing margin and marketing cost coefficient were belong to direct supply channel of rose and clove flowers to consumers in flower market. The results also indicated the marketing inefficiency of rose and cove cut flowers in Tehran province market and hence, the modification of market structure was suggested.
JEL Classification: Q130, M30
Keywords:
Marketing, Efficiency, Marketing Margin, Rose, Clove, Cut Flower, Tehran Province