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The UAE exported $235 million worth of date palms in 2020, with the fruit accounting for around 60 percent of the country’s agricultural products.
Sharjah: Date production in the UAE is booming as government initiatives start to bring profits to farmers.
Al Dhaid Date Festival in Sharjah, UAE late July It is the latest example of government support for the food industry. This annual event brings together thousands of farmers, manufacturers and dealers of agricultural equipment to facilitate deals and the exchange of expertise.
“We are not charged by the government to participate in public markets or festivals,” Ibrahim Shakkah, a Sharjah date farmer who participated in the festival, told Salaam Gateway. “Some exhibitions charge us a fee, but they’re just a nominal fee, which supports us tremendously and allows us to showcase our products and compete in the market,” he said.
Shakkah supplies the local market but is trying to be a regional supplier. “This is my third time attending the festival and it has helped me win a lot of customers; I now sell about 600 kilos of dates per month,” he said.
Ibrahim Shakkah, Sharjah’s Date Farmer (Heba Hashem).
more than 30,000 people Visited the 6th Al Dhaid Date Festival, coinciding with the UAE Date Harvest Season Peak in August and September. The event included a date farmers competition and awarded a total of $272,000 in cash prizes to 145 winners.Some of the most sought after dates in the near future 160 varieties Products grown in the country are displayed and sold.
Abu Ahmed, the first-ever participating date palm grower in Sharjah, showcased varieties such as khalas, sukkari, khenaizi, fard, marzipan, sobo al-aroos, al-ambra, nagal and gas rabie. “Everything is sold out due to the quality. I have sold more than five [metric] There were tons of dates last year, mainly through local marketing,” he said.
Industrial commercialization
as much as possible two thirds According to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, the bulk of the UAE’s agricultural land is dedicated to date palms, the fruit that accounts for around 60 percent of the country’s agricultural products. In 2019, the UAE produced 341,246 metric tons of dates from around 40 million date palms across the country, data Data from the Federal Center for Competitiveness and Statistics show.However, most date farms in the UAE are small family-run entities, starting around forty years ago as part of a social welfare program aimed at addressing the Bedouin. Because of this, many of the country’s date forests are hobby farms, and many farmers still grow dates in their backyards.
The government has taken huge steps to commercialize date cultivation and help farmers increase productivity and profitability.Although Sharjah organized the Al Dhaid Date Festival and three-month dating festival At Souq Al Jubail Market, Abu Dhabi has been organizing Day of the Dead Festival 18 years. The campaign recently concluded its latest installment, awarding nearly $2.2 million worth of prizes to hundreds of winning farmers.
Abu Dhabi also organizes the annual Khalifa International Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation Award as well as International Date Palm Conference and Abu Dhabi Date Palm Show. This month, another annual event – Liwa Ajman Date and Honey Festival – will be held on the west coast of the country.
The Al Dhaid Date Festival coincides with the UAE’s date harvest season (Heba Hashem).
Exports rise
However, the most transformative move for date farmers was the establishment of Al Foah in 2005 by the Abu Dhabi government. Now the largest date processing company in the world, it buys products from local independent farmers and sells them domestically and internationally.The company – recently merge Entering government-backed food giant Agthia – the process 110,000 metric tons 90% of the annual date and export volume.
Last month, Al Foah launched a Izzard This will enable farmers to sell surplus produce both at home and abroad, help them dispose of unsold produce and ensure they get paid quickly. Over 1,200 buyers Already registered on the electronic platform, and more than 450 local farmers have registered their interest.
Thanks to these efforts, the value of UAE’s date palm exports almost five times According to the Economic Complexity Observatory (OEC), which collates international trade data, it has grown from $48.1 million in 2010 to $235 million in 2020 over the past decade. The UAE currently accounts for 12.3% of global date exports, making the country the third largest exporter of dates after Tunisia (15.5%) and Saudi Arabia (13.2%). India, the world’s largest importer of dates, was the UAE’s largest importer, importing 33.2% of the country’s dates in 2020, followed by Bangladesh (16.5%) and Morocco (13.7%), OEC data showed.
agricultural restrictions
While the UAE’s date farmers are a long-standing tradition that locals are proud of, the industry is becoming increasingly important given the role it plays in the pursuit of food security. As a result, there is an increasing emphasis on educating farmers on sustainable techniques to improve the quality of crops.At the same time, the UAE government continues to support local farmers, providing subsidy For example, agricultural materials are half price. But there are still some limitations.
“One of the biggest challenges faced by farmers in the UAE is the high cost they incur due to the varying amount of water resources across the country,” Saeed Dalmouk Alkatbi, member of the Organizing Committee of the Al Dhaid Date Festival, told Salam Portal. “In addition to agricultural pest problems and the high cost of pesticides. These problems lead to differences in the quality and price of dates from one part of the UAE to another,” he said.
The government announced this year that it will solve this problem Expanding an additional water supply network to agricultural farms through an investment of AED 2.5 billion (approximately US$ 681,000) to facilitate the distribution of treated water.
Abu Ahmed, a date farmer (Herba Hashim) in Sharjah.
“We inherited palm cultivation from our father and grandfather, and we learned a lot from them about how to care for date palms,” Abu Ahmed said. “In the beginning, we used primitive methods to dry and store dates, then we moved to modern methods. We now fertilize palms with organic fertilizers and try to fight pests from an early stage.”
Alkatbi noted that the Al Dhaid Date Festival introduced farmers to several planting techniques that can increase crop yields, most importantly the use of seed propagation, asexual reproduction and tissue culture techniques. The event also showed date farmers how to regularly monitor date palms to avoid pests such as the red palm weevil.This highly destructive insect is so common that the UAE $1 million investment Develop genetic methods to control it.
“It’s no secret that there are huge challenges in this area, as some diseases can infest palms and negatively impact their production. We manage these problems with pesticides or primary infection prevention,” Shakkah said. “At the end of the day, the date palm is like a child; when you take care of it and nurture it, it pays off handsomely.”
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