Assessing the Competitiveness of Shrimp Farming in Iran: Using PAM Approach

Shrimp farming in Iran is one of the fast growing segments of the economy. In 1994, around 1% of Iranian shrimp production was farmed and by 2003 the share of shrimp farming increased to 60%. In spite of the fact that shrimp culture had relatively rapid growth in last decade, due to increase in production cost and decrease in international price, the profit of shrimp production decrease in recent years. The purpose of this research is to analyze the competitiveness of Iranian shrimp farming. The policy analysis matrix (PAM) method was used to investigate divergence between market and social profit in the Iranian shrimp industry. The results indicated that social prices for production cost were higher than market prices for fuel, electricity, fertilizer, and less than market price for feed. It indicates that in spite of government subsidies to shrimp production inputs, the shrimp producers categorized as tax payers for total input cost. In addition, it was concluded that shrimp social price and production profit were less than market prices

Economic Analysis of Fishery in the Northern Persian Gulf

There are many fishing landing areas in southern Iran, distributed all along the northern Persian Gulf. Despite increasing effort, the total catch has fluctuated in recent years. Iran is facing with over capacity of vessels and too many fishers, yet simultaneously political, social and economical pressures exist for expansion of fishing effort. It is extremely difficult to make management and resource allocation among competing user groups. This study examines the technical efficiency and profitability of the fishing industry in order to select the best fishing vessels group. The results indicate that wooden vessels of medium size are more efficient than small fiberglass ones. The result of profitability analysis using internal rate of return, and benefit cost ratio indicate that big vessels are in critical stage. Although small and medium vessels are profitable, but medium vessels are more economically efficient than others

Environmental change and fishery management in the northern Persian Gulf

Approximately 52% of the 380,000 tons of fish landings in Iran come from the northern Persian Gulf, with a total of 108,000 fishermen and 8900 fishing vessels (2003 data). The fishery in the region is very important for the local economy, but the major problems facing the Iranian fisheries are an uncertain availability of fish and over-fishing. The Persian Gulf is a sensitive marine ecosystem. The Gulf is a partially enclosed sea with an average depth of 35 metres and replacement of waters take some three to five years. Environmental factors have a major effect on fish stocks and fisheries in such a sensitive ecosystem. This study examines the influence of environmental changes in water temperature, rainfall, wind and sea level pressure on fish stocks in the northern Persian Gulf and estimates the maximum sustainable yields for fisheries management. Multivariate data and surplus production bio-economic models with environmental parameters are used to determine optimal harvest and forecasting. The study found that rainfall, water temperature and wind had significant positive effects whereas sea level pressure had a negative effect on the fisheries in the northern Persian Gulf. It is concluded that environmental parameters should be monitored concurrently with the fisheries to allow a greater understanding for fisheries management in the Persian Gulf.environmental parameters, Persian Gulf, fisheries, optimal catch, regression analysis,

Cluster Industry, A Procedure for Fishery and Aquaculture Management in Iran

Management of fisheries and aquaculture is an issue that has received widespread attention in the literature. The particular concern is the relationship among fishermen, fish farmers, management institution and fish resources. This relationship is very important for sustainable development of sea resources in Iran. Overfishing, uncertainty in fish availability and changing Iranian government fisheries management are important challenges for fisheries and coastal management in the south of Iran. In addition, aquaculture in Iran is linked to the fish resources via spawner catch from the coastal area. Iranian governmental fisheries management policy has changed during recent years. Government role in fisheries management changed from direct involvement to the monitoring and indirect management. In addition, there are some kinds of cooperative that available in the region. However, these cooperatives are not effectively involved in fisheries and aquaculture management. Cluster industry is a new approach that has been introduced recently and applied in some region (e.g. Port Lincoln Aquaculture Cluster in Australia). Industry clusters are groups of competing, collaborating and interdependent businesses working in a common industry and concentrated in a geographic region. This research examines a cluster establishment for Iranian fisheries and aquaculture in the south. The stratified random sampling and questionnaire were used for collecting data and shrimp farmers, fishermen, governmental managers, and distributor's opinions. The result indicated that the cluster form of relationship among coexisting firms (fishermen, farmers and related industries) provides a source of sustainable management of aquaculture, fisheries resource and creates competitive advantage

Oil exploitation and the environmental Kuznets curve

This study refers to a panel estimation of an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for oil to determine the factors most affecting oil exploitation in 38 oil-producing countries during 1990-2000. Control variables such as oil reserves, oil price, population, political rights, and the Gini index were used to determine its contribution to the main EKC model. The empirical results fully support the existence of an EKC for oil exploitation. Furthermore, the result indicates that the proved oil reserves has a significant and positive role in oil production, but oil price and population do not significantly affect crude oil production. Also, increased freedoms and a better income distribution will reduce the rate of oil exploitation. Thus, policies aiming at enhancing democratic society and better income distribution would be more compatible with sustainability.Oil exploitation EKC Oil price

Assessing the effect of oil price on world food prices: Application of principal component analysis

The objective of this paper is to investigate the co-movement of food prices and the macroeconomic index, especially the oil price, by principal component analysis to further understand the influence of the macroeconomic index on food prices. We examined the food prices of seven major products: eggs, meat, milk, oilseeds, rice, sugar and wheat. The macroeconomic variables studied were crude oil prices, consumer price indexes, food production indexes and GDP around the world between 1961 and 2005. We use the Scree test and the proportion of variance method for determining the optimal number of common factors. The correlation coefficient between the extracted principal component and the macroeconomic index varies between 0.87 for the world GDP and 0.36 for the consumer price index. We find the food production index has the greatest influence on the macroeconomic index and that the oil price index has an influence on the food production index. Consequently, crude oil prices have an indirect effect on food prices.Food price Oil price Principal component analysis