Khuzestan Expects 32% Rise in Date Production

Date production in the southern Khuzestan Province is estimated to reach 230,000 tons in the current Iranian year (March 2020-21) to register a 32% rise compared with last year, according to the head of Khuzestan Agricultural Jihad Organization.
“There are more than 41,000 palm groves in Khuzestan with Khorramshahr, Abadan, Ahvaz, Shadegan, Behbahan and Dasht-e Azadegan being the main date-producing counties of the province,” Khodarahm Amirizadeh was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Khuzestan harvests 17.2 million tons of agricultural products from its 1.2 million hectares of farmlands and orchards every year. The province’s annual agricultural and livestock outputs stand at 290 trillion rials ($1.23 billion) per year. 
Apart from Khuzestan, date is also produced in Kerman, Sistan-Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Bushehr and Fars provinces. 
Chairman of the National Association of Iranian Dates Mohsen Rashid Farrokhi had earlier told Financial Tribune in an interview that Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia are the world's biggest producers of dates with an average annual production of 1.4 million tons, 1.2 million tons and 1.1 million tons respectively.
"Yet, Iran is the biggest exporter of the crop in the world," Farrokhi added, noting that Egypt ranks second, while Saudi Arabia and Tunisia share the third spot in the export front.
A total of 238,152 tons of dates worth $211.64 million were exported from Iran in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), according to the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
“Iran exported dates to 85 countries during the period. Pakistan, Kazakhstan, the UAE, Turkey, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Denmark, Ukraine and Iraq were the main destinations,” Rouhollah Latifi was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
There are a dozen types of dates produced in Iran.