The Competitiveness of Egyptian Strawberry Exports in the Most Important International Markets

The research aimed to identify the nature of the external market for strawberry and measuring the competitiveness of Egyptian strawberry and the possibility of developing strawberry exports to maximize the return of exports of this sector. The results indicated that the average quantity of strawberry exports amounted to 41.49 thousand tons, which represents about 16.27% of the average domestic production estimated at 257.71 thousand tons, which indicates the small quantity of exports and the largest proportion of production consumed locally, while the export indices were characterized by relative instability during the period of study. The average instability coefficient was about 46%, 26%, 53% for export volume, export price, and export value respectively.
The average annual export volume of international strawberry reached 0.95 million tons, 13 countries accounted for 91% of them, and the top three export countries are Spain, USA, Mexico with a relative importance of 31.06% , 14.59% and 14.22% respectively, while Egypt came in fourth place with about 6.8% of world exports.
The market penetration index for Egyptian strawberry reached a maximum of 86.2% in Syria Market, followed by the markets of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait where it reached 73.01%, 69.91% respectively. This indicates the ease of entry of Egyptian strawberry to those markets where they have been accepted by these markets.
Egyptian strawberry have a high comparative price advantage in Qatar market with a competitive price index of about 7.27% respectively. And that the group of countries where the Egyptian strawberry do not enjoy a competitive price advantage that includes Libya, Sudan, Russia and South Africa with a competitive price index of about 105.07%, 114.29%, 180.56% and 183.55% respectively.
It turned out that strawberry exports achieved full efficiency in the number of thirteen markets are Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Germany, Syria, UAE, England, Russia, France, Holland, Qatar, Amman, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain. Efficiency levels are low In the markets of Kuwait, Iraq, Sudan, Libya about 88%, 70%, 67%, 87% respectively.
The quantity of strawberry exports targeted to be achieved was estimated in light of the indicators of competitiveness to achieve full efficiency and compared to the quantity of actual exports for each market. with an increase rate of about 10.5% of the actual export volume, which means an increase in Egyptian strawberry exports over the current exports, which raises the proportion of exports from about 15.3% to about 16.1% of the domestic production of strawberries during the period (2016-2020), with a value of Equivalent to $7.28 million, which contributes to strengthening the agricultural trade balance