Introduction: To achieve a dynamic economy, the successful flow of exports is a very effective factor. Every company enters an export market with the aim of developing its activity and creates infrastructure to achieve profitability in that market. In general, the purpose of entering and creating these infrastructures is to operate in a foreign market for several years. In addition to the company itself, the benefits of this action extend to the entire economy of the country of origin. For this reason, the development of exports is directly supported by the policy makers of the countries. Examining the business activity of companies shows that although every year, many companies enter foreign markets, but in less than a year, they stop their business activities for various reasons. Over recent years, East Azerbaijan province of Iran has played an effective role in increasing the country's export income due to its special geographical location as well as suitable economic facilities and potentials. This province has 1,200,000 hectares of agricultural land and about 100,000 hectares of gardens and orchards. The export products of the agricultural sector of East Azerbaijan include greenhouse products, livestock products, leather and hides, and concentrates, and these products are exported to 52 European and Asian countries, including neighboring countries and Russia. According to the statistics and information of Agriculture-Jahad Organization of the Ministry of Agriculture-Jahad (MAJ), in 2023, about 53,503 tons of agricultural products were exported from the province. But despite this issue, due to the involved effective internal and external factors, the export of the province has not yet been able to find its real position. In this research, considering the importance of the subject, the problems and challenges of expanding economic activities in the agricultural production in the province would be identified using a combined (quantitative-qualitative) approach and suitable management solutions would be adopted. Therefore, the main question of the research included: “What are the obstacles and challenges of developing the export of agricultural products in the East Azerbaijan province?”.
Materials and Methods: This research was an applied one in terms of purpose and a descriptive-survey one in terms of method. The required data were mainly collected through interview and questionnaire. The statistical population of the research, in the qualitative stage, included managers, professionals and experts as well as stakeholders in the export of agricultural products of East Azerbaijan province; in addition, in the interview stage, 184 people were randomly selected from among 10 experts in the export expertise to identify factors affecting the development of exports and to analyze the statistical model from among the statistical population and according to Cochran's calculation formula. In order to analyze the study findings, a structural equations technique along with a partial least squares approach were used.
Results and Discussion: Based on the findings of data analysis, economic factors with a path coefficient of 0.78, infrastructural factors with a path coefficient of 0.69, marketing factors with a path coefficient of 0.64, socio-cultural factors with a path coefficient of 0.58 and technical-specialized factors with path coefficient of 0.52 had significantly positive effects on the export development. In other words, the data analysis showed that the economic, infrastructure, marketing, socio-cultural, and technical-specialized factors had significantly positive impacts on the export development.
Conclusion and Suggestions: In the economic factors, applying exemptions and establishing incentives and facilities and in the ​​infrastructure factors, ease of access to bank credits, insurance coverage for exports to high-risk countries, product quality and compliance with international standards and support for export consortia and also, in the ​​marketing factors, using networking and collaborative strategies such as creating export consortia, presence in foreign markets, conducting market research in order to provide competitive prices, identifying distribution channels and local distribution channels as well as in the socio-cultural factors, managers' familiarity and awareness of market opportunities and target markets and familiarity with the culture of those countries (identifying competitors and consumer tastes in the target market) and finally, in the ​​technical-specialized factors, the presence of experts in the commerce, the use of up-to-date technologies in production standards, supporting commercial centers abroad for holding specialized exhibitions, etc. are suggested to managers to develop the export of agricultural products of East Azerbaijan province. Also, to develop exports, exhibitions of goods and products should be held in a planned and regular manner in different countries, and the possibility of selling products and goods should be realized for exporters and manufacturers. In this regard, a comparative study of the success rate of the country's international specialized exhibitions with other countries can guide the country and the province on the path of progress and increasing the success of the exhibitions.