Production capacity of 3.5 million tons of dates
Despite the fact that Iran has an annual production capacity of 3.5 million tons of dates, we have not seen any increase in production in this sector in the last eight years because not only investors have not been willing to invest in this sector, but also the government does not support date production.
The establishment of a headquarters to support date producers is a debate that was raised before the abstraction of trade affairs to the agricultural sector, but so far it has not come to fruition that these factors have broken the ranking of Iranian dates in the world.
Mousavi, the secretary general of the Iranian Date Association, considers the lack of government support and game brokers as a factor to reduce Iran’s ranking in this field, because due to some incorrect policies, dates are bought in Nakhlestan at a price of about 2,500 to 3,500 Tomans. It is sold for 10 thousand tomans per kilogram in the consumer market.
On the other hand, due to the lack of development of mechanization in cultivation and harvesting, one third of the dates produced in our country are lost annually.
Also, a large number of date orchards are non-economic due to erosion and need to be rehabilitated. Renovating non-economic dates requires a budget 10 times the current figure.
With the renovation of dilapidated date orchards, metamorphic production and the quantity and quality of this product will be significantly improved.
According to the Secretary General of the Iranian Date Association, given that the cost of horticulture has increased significantly in the last 25 years, it can be said that this increase in costs in the water, electricity and transportation sectors has caused the price of domestic date production costs to increase 100 times. At present, palm growers suffer a lot of losses, which has led to a reduction in production.
Mousavi said: Apart from a 100-fold increase in domestic spending, the price of the dollar has increased only 10 times, which has caused Iran to be out of the global competition in the date sector.