The Economic Importance of Date Production and International Trade

Introduction

Date palm trees are grown for its fruit and are the oldest cultivated tree fruits. The fruits known as dates are sweet and highly nutritious fruits. The major producers of date palm trees are countries in the Middle East and other countries in Africa while Iran is the largest exporter. Date palm trees are cultivated in dry arid zones having irrigation facilities. Date farming can have a successful cultivation in regions that have prolonged hot dry summer, moderate winter climatic conditions with no rain during the fruit ripening period. Date trees grow about 65 to 70 feet (20 to 21 m) in height. The trunk is cylindrical and columnar growing straight with the same girth to the top. Date palm is a dioecious tree which means the male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers are born on two different palm trees.

World production and trade

Date production is a world agricultural industry producing about 5.4 million metric tonnes (Mt) of fruit. The date fruit, which is produced largely in the hot arid regions of Southwest Asia and North Africa, is marketed all over the world as a high-value confectionery and fruit crop and remains an extremely important subsistence crop in most of the desert regions.

Main countries producing dates

	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	% of world	% change 1991-2001
	Thousand tones
World										5 307	5 353		43
Egypt	603	604	631	646	678	738	741	840	906	1 007	1 102	20.6	67
Iran, Islamic Rep. of	634	578	716	774	780	855	877	918	908	900	900	16.8	42
Saudi Arabia	528	552	563	568	589	617	649	648	712	712	712	13.3	35
Pakistan	293	275	577	579	533	534	537	722	580	550	550	10.3	88
Iraq	566	448	613	676	881	797	625	630	438	400	400	7.5	-29
Algeria	209	261	262	317	285	361	303	387	428	366	370	6.9	75
United Arab Emirates	173	230	236	236	237	245	288	290	305	318	318	5.9	84
Oman	135	150	163	170	173	180	185	236	282	260	260	4.9	93
Sudan	140	142	130	138	160	168	174	175	176	176	177	3.3	26
Morocco	107	82	111	62	98	80	110	85	73	74	32	0.6	-31