The abstract report of dates production in Iran and Kerman Province

Dates production at present time

The cultivation  areas of palms in world is more than 950000 tons in a hectare and these palms produce more than 5500000 tons of dates. The share  of Iran in global production of date is about 16 percents. These shares will change with production variations . In Iran the cultivation areas of palms is 20000  hectares and its production is about  950000-1000000 tons . Although  Iran was the first leading producer  in 2002-2003 ,its production in a hectare and its exports value are not in a proper situation. Iran dates are produced in 13 provinces ,and 9 provinces has more production. The domestic consumption of date is about 350000-400000 tons, Its exports is about100000-150000 tons,  its wastes  is about 20-25 percents, and the rest of production  are used to produce processed productions such as date syrup and date alcohol. Kerman province has about 42000 palms produce 200000-270000 tons dates. The average of per capita consumption of date in Iran is about 5-7 kilo grams and per capita consumption of dates in Kerman is about 30 kilograms. One of the best kinds of dates in Kerman is Masafati dates ,and this kind of dates should be kept in a special conditions an it should be packaged in a special way.

The problems and difficulties of date production and exports

 The production more than consumption ,remarkable wastes ,having low qualities of some kinds of dates , and improper exports quality and markets confuse farmers and they have no motivation  to do their responsibilities in a  good way.

 The difference of prices of date in Iran with other producers in other countries.( Iran dates is bought 30-40 cents  per kilo ,but  the production of other countries is bought 2/5 to 12/5 dollars)

 Using traditional Methods in planting , harvesting , packaging, and transferring

 Lack of modern and new processing and packaging equipments and industries

 Lack of technical exports committees  in provinces

The fixed rate of foreign currencies and variations of date prices in markets

 Lack of HACCP  system in processing and packaging of date

 Having old and improper palm groves

Date exports

The date exports of Iran is varied from 100000 to150000 tons .India , Malaysia, Canada ,EURO countries, United Arab emirates , and turkey are main importers of Iran date.                                                                                                               In following tables ,you can see the comparison of value of Iran date exports and the share of each province in Iran exports during 1999-2000/2004-2005. It is necessary to say that most of Kerman  date production is done from the customs in other provinces  and this point is not considered in these tables.

The table of date exports of Iran and Its provinces during 1999-2000/2004-2005

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The table of date export of customs and the percent of variations in comparison with pervious years    

Suggestions:

Performing obligatory standards in production , packaging , and exports

Establishing technical date terminals in producers provinces

Creating a website for date in Internet

Equipping and using modern processed equipments in date production centers 

Performing  the possible projects for palm groves according to possibilities of  management and  planning organization

Providing a proper network without any mediators  in order to help producers and consumers

The table of comparison of none oil exports of Kerman province in the first three months of 2004-2005,& its comparison with the same months in pervious year