Abstract: ________________________________________________________________________________________________
• Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Economics. Egyptian Association of Agricultural Economics. Vol. (17), No. (4).December 2007.
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The study aimed to recognize the competitiveness of Egyptian exports of major agricultural commodities in the Saudi market. To achieve the research objectives, the study used descriptive and analytical statistical methods to measure market penetration and revealed competitive advantage of major Egyptian agricultural commodities exports in the Saudi market.
The study indicated the importance of Saudi market for Egyptian exports, where it imported about 79.3%, 64.7%, 51.5%, 37.8%, 21.7%, 5.4%, 4.6%, and 2% from Egyptian exports of fresh mango, fresh Lemons, fresh strawberries, fresh tomatoes, onion, white rice, fresh grape, and fresh orange respectively during the period (2003-2005).
The market share of major exports of Egyptian agricultural commodities in Saudi market reached about 83.3%, 78.8%, 61.9%, and 29.1% for fresh strawberries, onion, orange, and lemon respectively, while market share of grapes, tomatoes, rice, and mango decreased by 1.2%, 2%, and 2.1% respectively during the same studied period.
The results also indicated an increase in market penetration indicator for the majority of agricultural commodities in Saudi market during the studied period, where it reached its maximum value for rice and mango crops (1.007), and its minimum value for tomatoes (0.35). This result indicates the possibility to increase the Egyptian agricultural commodities exports to the Saudi market.
The results revealed that the main competitors for Egypt in the Saudi market are: India, Pakistan, USA, Thailand, Spain, Australia, and Sri Lanka for rice exports; Yemen, India, and Turkey for fresh onion exports; Syria, Turkey, and Yemen for fresh tomato exports; USA, and Australia for fresh strawberry exports; South Africa, Lebanon, Syria, Zimbabwe, Australia, Turkey Argentina, Swaziland, and Brazil for fresh orange; South Africa, Turkey, India, and Zimbabwe as for fresh lemon; Pakistan, Yemen, India, Sudan, South Africa, Kenya, Indonesia, and Brazil for fresh mango; and finally Lebanon, Turkey, Chili, Syria , India, Yemen, Italy, USA, and Greece as for fresh grapes.
The results indicated an increase in the relative competitive advantage indicator for the Egyptian exports of agricultural commodities in Saudi market during the period 2003-2005, where it reached 1.00 for fresh strawberry, 0.81 for rice, and 0.72 for fresh onion, while the same indicator decreased by about 0.02, 0.22, 0.34, 0.39, and 0.4 for orange, grapes, lemon, tomato, and mango respectively.
Therefore, the study recommends to work hard to keep, and improve, the distinguished level competitive advantage that Egyptian exports of fresh strawberry, white rice, and fresh onion enjoy in the Saudi market. In addition, the study recommends to reduce the export prices of fresh orange, fresh grapes, fresh lemon, fresh tomato, and fresh mango exported to the Saudi market by trying to reduce the production and marketing costs for these crops to improve Egypt's competitiveness and share in that market, especially after joining the WTO in November 2005 and opening its market to all member countries.
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