Author(s)

Abeer A. Kinawy^1,2*, Amal S. Alaliol^1,3, Ibrahim A. Abdelfatah²

¹Department of Agricultural Business and Consumer Sciences, College of Agricultural and Food Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, KSA.
²Economic, Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
³Applied Economics Program, Department of Agricultural Business and Consumer Sciences, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, KSA.

The world has recently experienced major challenges in all respects in general, and in economic in particular following the Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). This has led people to improve their diet by consuming more vitamin-rich food commodities, especially vitamin C, because of its important effect in promoting body immunity and resistance for many diseases and cold diseases. The study relied on secondary data (time series) during the period (2001-2020), collected from various sources. The study estimated the demand function and the different factors affecting demand. The near-optimal demand model in the Saudi market is the models used in the study by analyzing commodity demand equations system according to their variety or sources. The research examined the application of this model in the study of domestic demand for the most important commodities consumed in Saudi Arabia (orange-lemon-tangerines). The results show that the suggested model obtained conditions of the application function, which are addition, homogeneity, symmetry, price, cross demand and expenditure elasticities. It is noted that the own-price demand elasticity was negative, and less than the correct one for lemons, which indicated that it was a necessary commodity. The demand for both oranges and tangerines turned out to be elastic. It also turns out that there is a direct relationship between lemon prices and spending on lemons and tangerines. There is an inverse relationship between the price of both lemons and spending on oranges. It also noted that the indicative of spending elasticity for both oranges and lemons was positive.

Semi-Optimal Demand Model, Saudi Arabia, Orange, Lemon, Tangerine

Kinawy, A. , Alaliol, A. and Abdelfatah, I. (2022) Estimating the Domestic Demand for Saudi Citrus Using an Almost Ideal Demand Model in Light of Corona Pandemic. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 10, 398-409. doi: 10.4236/jss.2022.102028.