Date production expected to beat all records this year

The date production this year is expected to beat all records with a very good quality yield estimated at 340 thousand tonnes, against 289 thousand tonnes in 2018 and 305 thousand tonnes in 2017, Director General of Agricultural Production at the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries Ezzeddine Chalghef told TAP in an interview.

He said Tunisia exports dates to more than 80 destinations in total. Morocco is Tunisia’s first customer, since it buys almost ¼ of the country’s exports, with quantities ranging from 30 to 35 thousand tonnes.

Spain is in second place (9,500 tonnes), followed by other markets whose demand is growing compared to last year, namely Canada (+ 11%), Singapore (+ 42%), Bangladesh (+ 54%), Mali (+ 65%) and Côte d’Ivoire (+ 44%).

Significant demands for Tunisian dates also come from Malaysia and a number of Asian Muslim countries.

“During the 2018-2019 season, Tunisia has exported 120 thousand tonnes of dates, worth 863 million dinars,” until September 25, said Chalghef.

Kebili tops the list of date-producing regions, followed by Tozeur, Gafsa and Gabes.

The Deglet Ennour variety represents 80% of Tunisia’s production, alongside other varieties.

TunisianMonitorOnline (Source:TAP)

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