Iran has been rated the world’s top date producer, with a total annual output of 908,000 tons. The country contributes 20 percent of the world’s total date consumption, harvesting its 400 date palm variety, reported Tehran Times.
Some 215,000 hectares of land are cultivated with palm trees throughout Iran. Although the provinces of Hormozgan, Sistan va Baluchestan, Fars and Khuzestan are the major hubs of date production in Iran, 25 percent of the country's dates are produced in the palm groves of Kerman, Bam and Jiroft.
The total global output of date is estimated at 2.6 million tons annually, 90 percent of which are produced by Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan. Iraq use to be the world’s leading exporter of date, accounting for 50 percent of global date exports. The 1991 Gulf war, however, drastically limited Iraqi exports to seven percent of global exports. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
