Abstract

Behzad Sani and Hossein Aliabadi Farahani

Iran is one of the largest Asian countries with arid and semi-arid weather, but can produce most food crops due to special geographical position. In order to determine seasonal prices (SPV) variations in some food crops, this study was carried out at Karaj city of Iran in 2009. In this experiment, four groups of food products were used. The first group includes tree fruits (orange, apple and pomegranate), the second includes the kitchen garden fruits (watermelon, melon and cantaloupe), the third includes greenhouse fruits (banana, strawberry and pineapple) and the fourth group includes vegetables (tomato, potato and onion). Each of the above products price was determined in each season (spring, summer, autumn and winter) and were compared with one another by statistical graphs. The results showed that price variations were high in tree fruits, vegetables and kitchen garden fruits than the greenhouse fruits and demand of these products was very dependent on price variations. In the seasons, increase in product demand results to decrease in product price, while reduction in the product’s demand results to increase in product price; but greenhouse fruits prices were constant during the year and there were also constant demand for these products in all seasons. The results showed that the greenhouses production and processing food products can keep constant prices of food products throughout the year and remove the destructive role of brokers.