The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is an inter-governmental organization comprising Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey and several countries of the Commonwealth of Independent states (CIS) including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The agricultural sector has remained a major contributor to the national economies of the ECO member countries. According to FAO estimates, in 2002 agriculture generated 25.2 percent of GDP and employed 42 percent of the economically-active population in the ECO region. Livestock production in the ECO countries is predominately based on traditional systems. The amount of livestock products in ECO was about 6,000,000 metric tons (Mt) during the study period. Most of this production belonged to Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, but most red meat, skins and honey is produced by CIS countries. This paper looks at the performance of livestock production and export of Iran and CIS countries within the ECO region and examines the comparative advantage indices for these countries. The data from 1992-2002 is supplied by the FAO (2004). Changes in Iran's production and export structure were compared with CIS producers. The objectives of this paper are: (1) to identify the comparative advantage of Iranian livestock production and export in comparison with CIS countries; (2) to discuss the reasons for changes in comparative advantage over time. The research results show that past trade and production policies, and the economic behavior of producers and exporters, have been such that they could manage neither appropriate and timely responses to world demand, nor proper adaptation to market niches.
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Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number
241.
Find related papers by JEL classification: Q17 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agriculture in International Trade
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