Strategic Planning for Developing Supply Chain of Olive in Roudbar County, Guilan Province

Current applied research through strategic planning approach was implemented in two phase in 2019, and was aimed to analyze the situation analyze and formulate strategies for development of olive supply chain in Roudbar county, Guilan province. The first phase was based on qualitatively interviews and the second phase was done through quantitatively method. The findings of the first phase were used to describe the issue and generalities of the research design as well as the development of research tools in the second phase. In this regard 44 external factors (26 opportunities and 17 threats) and 66 internal factors (25 strengths and 41 weaknesses) were identified. In second phase, finding of first phase was used to formulate a questionnaire to assess and develop strategies based on SWOT technique and strategic planning matrix. Content and face validity of the researcher-made questionnaire as research tool was confirmed by an expert panel (including a group of faculty members and local extension agents). Some items have been removed or merged to increase the validity of the questionnaire. Its reliability was confirmed by calculated Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (between 0.79 and 0.91). The target population of this research included all olive producers in Roudbar County (N=16000). According to Krejcie and Morgan's sample size table, sample size was determined (n=375). The respondents were selected by simple random sampling technique. The results of the items ranking showed that "The reputation of the olive of Roudbar County (place brand)" as strength “lack of recognition the capacity of international markets by olive producers in the county", as weakness, "possibility of entering pests (Olive flies, olive branch) from the boundaries to the province" as a threat and, "possibility to increase the value of the olive product by improving the planting, rearing and post harvesting methods" as the opportunity have the highest priority. The results of SWOT technique showed that total score of internal factors are 2.857 and 3.479 respectively and total score of external factors are 3.224 and 3.058 respectively. According to the results, supply chain development strategies are close to competitive strategies. Among the competitive strategies, these items are more important: "promote the planting of high-yielding and customer-friendly varieties", "promote modern irrigation practices such as drip irrigation", "construction of seedling nursery for ease of access to seedlings of high yielding varieties", "the assignment of public land with supportive facilities to increase the area of under cultivation", "encouraging agricultural university graduates to build mechanized orchard through especial support schemes", "organizing olive festivals to promote regional brand and increase sales".