Competitiveness of The Turkish Dried Fruit Sector.

The aim of this study was to reveal the competitiveness of dried fruit sector in Izmir. In this study, the competition level of dried fruits sector in Izmir was analyzed by applying Porter's Diamond Model. The total number of dried fruit firms in İzmir is 46. Data for this research were collected from the manager of 26 firms, that is 56.5% of all the companies working in this sector. According to the results, the competitiveness level of Izmir for the sector was determined as medium. The most important finding of the research was that the state, which was classified as an outside factor in the model, was found to affect the competition level of the sector negatively due to high tax rates, complex legal arrangements and bureaucracy. The outcomes could be used to create both public sector policies and private sector policies in order to improve sector competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]