Fars Province Hosting ‘DATEX 2021’

The Third International and Specialized Exhibition of Dates and Related Equipment and Industries, also known as “DATEX 2021”, opened in the southwestern Fars Province on Monday and will run through Jan. 29.
“Date industry owners and businesspeople from Iran, as well as traders from Afghanistan and Pakistan, are taking part in this year’s event,” Alireza Vahedi, a local official, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official noted that all health protocols to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic will be observed during the four-day exhibition. 
About 1.2 million tons of different types of dates have been produced in Iran this year (started March 20), almost as much as that in last year, according to the chairman of National Association of Iranian Dates.
“Exports have been hampered by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, we expect 15-20% of our overall production to be exported by the end of the current Iranian year [March 20, 2021],” Mohsen Rashid Farrokhi was also quoted by the Young Journalists Club as saying.
North American and European Union countries, as well as Russia, India and China, are the main destinations for Iranian dates. 
Rouhollah Latifi, spokesman of the Islamic republic of Iran Customs Administration, has said 238,152 tons of dates worth $211.64 million were exported from Iran to 85 countries in the last Iranian year (March 2019-20), ILNA reported.
Zahra Jalili-Moqaddam, an Agriculture Ministry official, said Iran is the world’s second biggest producer of dates with an annual production of 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 and Algeria has the biggest area of land under date cultivation.
"Iran is the biggest exporter of dates in the world," Farrokhi told Financial Tribune in an interview, noting that Egypt ranks second, with Saudi Arabia and Tunisia sharing the third spot in the export front.
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 70% of the total output that reached 800,000 tons.