Pakistan is the worlds fifth largest date producer and ranks second after Iran among its neighbours. Date fruit is one of the most import fruit crop especially in the Middle East with global production of dates reaching 7.5 million metric tons in 2014. It is the third largest fruit crop in Pakistan after mango and citrus.
Dates are among few fruits that are grown in all four provinces of the country over an area of about 92,300 hectors. The annual production of dates in Pakistan is estimated to be between 550,000 to 650,000 metric tons (MT). Sind contributes around 50 percent of dates produced in Pakistan of which 90 percent comes from the date palms of Khairpur. Pakistan falls in such an agro-ecological region where dates can grow on a large scale with superior quality.
Globally, dates exports in 2013 achieved 809,000 MT, 16 percent up over the previous year and 46 percent more than in 2004. In Pakistan, the exports of dates have witnessed a growth over the years but much more should be done.
The country only exported a merely 166,450 tons in the last season out of which 14,742 tons was fresh, and 151,708tonss were dried. Over the years, Pakistan has gained significant strength with regards to dried dates. India and Bangladesh are two largest importers of Pakistani dry dates.
According to USAID date fruit industry suffers inferior quality issues, lack of storage facilities, non-availability of quality packing, poor transportation facilities, and high freight charges. But the industry insiders insist that the biggest barrier is a lack of proper government policy on date exports. With a lack of export policy in this sector, Pakistan gets much lower prices of the exported dates compare to other date exporting countries due to low standard with its fresh date industry.
Importers in other countries continue to buy Pakistani dates only to add value and then re-export. This is value being missed by the country's agri-value chain. Dry dates dominate in the country's exports because of high demand in India. However fresh dates fetch better prices, globally.
