A total of 60,734 tons of dates worth $53 million were exported from Iran during the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 20-July 21), according to the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.
“Iran exported dates to 52 countries during the four-month period, with Sweden, Canada, the Netherlands, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Australia, Qatar, Germany, Turkey, Afghanistan, France, the UK, Iraq, India, China, Ukraine, Chile and Hungary being the main export destinations,” Rouhollah Latifi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official added that Iraq with $9.73 million, Pakistan with $7.64 million and Kazakhstan with $5.91 million were the top three buyers of Iranian dates during the period under review.
Last fiscal year (March 2019-20), 238,152 tons of dates worth $211.64 million were exported from Iran.
According to Agriculture Ministry official, Zahra Jalili-Moqaddam, Iran is the world’s second biggest producer of dates with an annual production of around 1.2 million tons. The figure accounts for 10% of the global output.
Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Pakistan, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan, Oman and Libya are the top 10 producers of dates in the world. Egypt has the biggest production volume and Algeria has the biggest area of land under date cultivation.
Chairman of the National Association of Iranian Dates Mohsen Rashid Farrokhi recently said two of Iran’s southern neighbors, namely Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are reportedly expanding their palm-groves, which can turn them into serious rivals of Iran, ILNA reported.
“At present, our production surpasses theirs by only 50,000 tons to 100,000 tons per year. This calls for prompt action on the part of Iranian producers and traders active in the field to boost their marketing methods and promote the delectable Iranian dates,” he said.
The official noted that Afghanistan is also planning to replace part of its opium poppy cultivation with date palms. He, however, pointed out that since the country only has a small area where palm-groves could be grown, the harvest will be relatively meager, which cannot compete with Iranian dates in foreign markets.
Farrokhi told Financial Tribune in an interview that Iran exports around 20% of its overall production.
"Iran is the biggest exporter of dates in the world. Egypt ranks second and Saudi Arabia and Tunisia share the third spot in the export front. The Iranian government has a five-year plan to increase the share of exports from local production to 30%,” he said.
There are a dozen types of dates produced in Iran and per capita date consumption in Iran is 3 kilograms per year.
Date is mainly produced in six Iranian provinces, namely Kerman, Sistan-Baluchestan, Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Bushehr and Fars. This year, production from Kerman, Sistan-Baluchestan and Khuzestan accounted for 800,000 tons of the total output (70%).
Date production in the southern Khuzestan Province, one of the main hubs of date production in Iran, 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 a senior local official, Khodarahm Amirizadeh.
“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,” the head of Khuzestan Agricultural Jihad Organization was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Khuzestan harvests some 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 production stands at 290 trillion rials ($1.23 billion) per year.
