900 thousand tons of dates will be harvested

It is estimated that 900,000 tons of dates will be harvested from the country’s groves this year.
Engineer Reza Soofiabadi, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Jihad Agriculture, added: Date harvesting from orchards in Bushehr, Kerman and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces will begin in mid-August and it is expected that between 870 and 900 thousand tons of dates will be harvested by the end of the harvest season.
The largest amount of dates is produced in Kerman, Kahnooj and Jiroft and the provinces of Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchestan, he added.
Regarding the development of date orchards, the Deputy Director General of the General Directorate of Palm Trees stated: Between two and three thousand hectares are added to the area of date palms in the country every year.
Noting that the average yield of dates in the country is 7.4 to 5 tons per hectare, he added: The policy of the General Directorate of Palms before the development of the area under cultivation is to increase the yield per unit area and increase the quality of the product.
Iran is the largest producer of dates in the world with a production of nearly one million tons, said Sufiabadi. The world market of dates is 400,000 to 500,000 tons, of which Iran’s share is 100,000 to 120,000 tons, and the Ministry of Jihad for Agriculture is seeking to increase it. The quality of dates is followed by an increase in export value.
In the end, he said about the rumors of declining date production in the country: The situation of date production in Fars, Bushehr and Khuzestan provinces is good, but in some areas such as Kerman, Bam and Jiroft, due to the dryness of date clusters, production may decline.