Analyzing the problems of sales and trade of Iranian tea and providing strategies for overcoming them

Aim and introduction: Tea, following water, is the most popular beverage among people around the world and holds a strategic importance in the commercial sector of our country, similar to pistachios, saffron, dates, and other agricultural products. In addition to high demand and consumption, the production, processing, and trade of tea involve various factors such as production technology and policy-making. It can be claimed that agricultural products, including tea, have the potential to significantly contribute to non-oil exports of the country. Despite Iran being among the top ten major tea producers, unfortunately, it has not achieved a suitable position in the market among tea-producing countries and has captured a market share of less than 5 percent. Currently, due to flawed and unprofessional marketing of agricultural products, including tea, most of the profits from product sales go to intermediaries and profit-seekers, and the consequences of this wrong approach directly and indirectly harm the welfare and economy of tea farmers and producers. The present study aims to initially identify the barriers and problems of the Iranian tea market and, on the other hand, provide a model for problem-solving and market development by identifying strategies, obstacles, and accelerators.
Methodology: The present study is a qualitative research based on interviews, in which the opinions of 15 experts and practitioners in the tea industry in Gilan province have been used. The selection of interviewees was done based on purposive method. The criteria for selecting individuals for interviews included having expertise and acceptable experience in the tea industry and its distribution and sales in domestic and international markets. The number of interviewees was determined based on the saturation principle, meaning that the interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached, which is when the twelfth interviewee was reached. It should be noted that after reaching saturation, interviews continued up to the fifteenth person to ensure further confidence in the non-repetitiveness of the topics. The interviews were conducted in a semi-structured manner, and then the content of the interviews was examined by the researchers for coding purposes. In the initial stage and open coding, a total of 157 codes were extracted from the 15 interviews conducted. Through analyzing these codes and examining their formal and conceptual repetitions, a final set of 69 codes was extracted.
Finding: The research findings revealed that the model resulting from this study consists of five main categories, which are as follows: 1) Problems and challenges, 2) Fundamental and essential factors leading to problems and challenges, 3) Actions and operations, 4) Catalytic and supportive factors, 5) Expected outcomes of implementing actions. The problems and challenges themselves can be categorized into three general themes: branding-related issues, marketing and advertising issues, and production and product quality issues. The findings from the data coding indicate that the fundamental and essential factors leading to problems and challenges can be grouped into three general themes: supply and demand, marketing and commercial contexts, and policy and policymaking. Regarding actions and operations, four main categories were extracted, which include marketing and branding operations, quality improvement, operational efficiency enhancement measures, and supportive and policy governance, which was identified as the only catalytic (catalyst) category. Regarding the expected outcomes of implementing actions, three main outcomes were categorized, which are market development and sales, national production development, and economic development and growth. Each of these main categories is further composed of several sub-categories, resulting in a total of 69 sub-categories.
Discussion and conclusion: Improper marketing practices, due to an inadequate understanding of the target market, lack of knowledge in effective advertising, insufficient advertising for Iranian tea, extensive promotion of foreign teas, weak brand building for domestic tea, and failure to meet consumer needs and demands, have been identified as problems related to marketing, branding, and advertising. Additionally, irregular imports of foreign tea, inappropriate pricing of Iranian tea compared to foreign tea, market price instability, excessive intermediaries, inadequate market facilitation structures, and the absence of a specialized market have been categorized as the underlying factors contributing to the problems in the marketing and commercial domain. By implementing strategies such as developing new markets, increasing advertising and brand development, it is possible to facilitate attracting more domestic and international customers and increase the market share and sales volume of Iranian tea products by improving their quality. Furthermore, implementing solutions such as increasing productivity and reducing production costs, enhancing the quality of products, and establishing a strong national brand can contribute to the development of the tea industry in terms of domestic production. Creating favorable conditions for investment in tea-producing regions, generating indirect employment in the tea value chain, and developing high-value-added tea exports have the potential to contribute to economic development and growth.