Leading Countries Growing Dates Fruit

Leading Countries Growing

Dates Fruit

Led by Egypt, Middle Eastern, West Asian, and North African countries grow the most fresh fruits of the date palm tree.

 

 

 

Dates

Dates are oval-shaped, reddish-yellow, sweet fruits that grow on the date palm tree.Dates are considered a staple food throughout Middle Eastern countries with evidence of cultivation dating back as far as 7000 BC. As trade developed in this area with the rest of the world, dates were introduced to Southwest Asia, Northern Africa, and Spain. During the Spanish conquests in the Americas, dates were brought to Mexico, California, and later South America.

 

 

 

Cultivation

Date palms require arid and semi-arid conditions in places with long, hot summers and little to no rainfall for growth. In an agricultural setting, the roots are kept clear of grass and weeds that might hold in humidity and a small trench is dug around the base of the tree. This trench is filled with water so that it may go directly to the roots. When the fruit begins to form on long strands, agricultural workers remove the majority of the fruits to allow the remaining dates to grow to large sizes. These larger sizes are in high demand on the international market. Below is a look at which countries produce the greatest weight of dates every year and to where those dates are exported.

 

Leading Date Growing Countries

 

Egypt is the world leader in date production and cultivation. Each year, this country produces approximately 1,084,529 metric tons of dates. Just over half, 53%, of exported Egyptian dates are imported by Morocco, this is followed by Indonesia (24%) and Malaysia (15%). The total export value is around $41.8 million.

 

 

Following Egypt, Iran produces 947,809 metric tons annually. Despite this large production rate, it only accounts for approximately 7.7% of total world exports. The majority of Iran’s date exports go to Asian countries. The biggest importers are India (16%) and Malaysia (11%). Russia follows by importing 9.9% of Iran’s exported dates.

 

 

A list of these and other top date producing countries and their annual outputs of the fruit can be found below.

World Leading Countries Growing Fresh Dates

Rank	Country	Annual Production of Fresh Dates in Metric Tons
1	Egypt	1,084,529
2	Iran	947,809
3	Saudi Arabia	836,983
4	Iraq	675,440
5	Pakistan	556,608
6	United Arab Emirates	533,701
7	Algeria	485,415
8	Sudan	435,668
9	South Sudan	432,100
10	Oman	239,397

 

 

 

Source: www.worldatlas.com