Jordanian Economy Reviews the Development of the Jordanian Date Sector and its Growth Opportunities

Haddad: More than 700 date farms in Jordan with an area of up to 56,000 dunams and production exceeding 37,000 tons

Haddad: More than 40% of the labor force in the date sector is women and labor costs account for 70% of production costs, and the use of modern technologies contributes to reducing costs

Haddad: 15 operators with a production capacity of about 20,000 tons annually, while investments exceeded half a billion dollars

Haddad: The average consumption of a Jordanian individual of dates reached 4 kilograms annually after the spread of awareness of the nutritional value of dates

Malhas: The date sector is promising and Jordan's production of the unknown is high

The Jordanian Economic Forum held a session as part of the Economic Salon entitled "Jordanian Dates: Promising Opportunities and a Source of Growth", during which the President of the Board of Directors of the Jordanian Dates Association, Engineer Anwar Haddad, was hosted, and it was moderated by the Deputy Chairman of the Forum's Board of Trustees, Omar Malhas, to discuss the reality of the sector, its development, investment and export opportunities, and the challenges it faces.

With the presence of the Deputy President of the Forum, Mazen Al-Humoud, and a number of members of the Board of Directors and the General Assembly of the Forum, Haddad said that Jordan has about one million date palms, more than 85% of which are of the unknown variety, about 10% of the Barhi variety and the remaining 5% for other varieties, while the number of farms exceeds 700 farms, with an area of more than 56,000 dunams and production exceeding 37,000 tons.

He pointed out that the sector provides more than ten thousand job opportunities, more than 40% of which are women, and includes 15 operators with a production capacity of 20,000 tons annually, while investments exceeded half a billion dollars, and the average consumption of a Jordanian individual of dates was 4 kilograms annually.

Haddad estimated exports at about 65% of production, worth nearly 60 million dinars annually, expecting its value to rise to 150 million dinars after all planted areas enter production.

He explained that most exports are of the unknown variety, with increasing demand for Barhi, reviewing the development of production and areas, indicating that they reached, respectively, 1,321 tons and 2,640 dunams in 2000, then 3,965 tons and 6,560 dunams in 2006, 10,417 tons and 18,400 dunams in 2012, 26,190 tons and 32,740 dunams in 2018, reaching about 37,000 tons and 56,000 dunams in 2026.

He explained that exports amounted to 720 tons worth $473,000 in 2001, 2,209 tons worth $3.651 million in 2006, then 2,704 tons worth $5.551 million in 2012, 6,603 tons worth $19.781 million in 2018, and 20,083 tons worth $71.946 million in 2024.

Regarding the origin of the sector, he explained that commercial cultivation of dates of the unknown variety, originally from Morocco, began in the early 1990s, and the first unknown variety farms were in the central Jordan Valley in the farms of His Majesty the late King Hussein bin Talal, may God rest his soul, and the trees began to bear fruit in 1999 and 2000, before the expansion of palm cultivation over the next quarter century.

He pointed to the spread of farms along the Jordan River, in the north, center and south of the valley and the area of the Baptism, in addition to Al-Azraq and Aqaba, confirming that the location, climate and environment are key factors in the characteristics of the Jordanian product, and that the unknown dates ripen naturally on the mother tree.

He reviewed a study conducted in 1995 on varieties and their cultivation potential, which recommended the unknown variety due to the suitability of the Jordanian environment for its growth, and said that the study was conducted at the Agricultural Credit Institution by a national team of 11 researchers under his leadership and with multiple specializations, funded by 15,000 dinars from the Ministry of Planning, and pointed out that the expansion of palm cultivation was based on a scientific basis, reviewing publications that addressed the strategy and positioning of Jordanian date products, reflecting the role of research and knowledge in establishing and developing the experience.

Haddad linked the quality of the fruits to the environment of the Jordan Valley, describing the area as ideal for palm cultivation where it is the "lowest spot in the world" and enjoys, according to his presentation, the highest natural atmospheric pressure and oxygen content, and this climate allows for the completion of ripening and the clearest environmental impact on the formation of the flesh of the fruits, taste, flavor, shape and color, and he said that the experience showed, according to his evaluation, that Jordan has the most suitable areas for growing and developing the unknown variety globally, based on the characteristics of the climate that affect the quality of the fruits, and there is no match for the Jordanian environment in the Jordan Valley for cultivating this variety.

He explained that most of the seedlings used later for cultivation were tissue-grown seedlings imported from reliable sources, and that the sector was based on a standard specification for Jordanian dates and a national strategy for cultivating date palms in Jordan for the period 2020-2030.

He explained that the unknown and Barhi represent the main varieties for commercial production; the unknown is characterized by a large to medium size, a brownish color and a sweet taste, while the Barhi is characterized by a large size, a yellow color and a high sweetness, and it is eaten in the half-ripe or ripe stage.

In agricultural practices, he pointed to modern irrigation networks and methods, well-studied irrigation and fertilization programs, flower pollination methods, fruit thinning and separation and bagging, keeping up with production and marketing techniques, using modern workshops and packaging machines, obtaining quality certificates and applying international standards.

He explained that the applications of using digital applications in farm management will include on a large scale, God willing, the use of satellite systems and vegetation health indicators "NDVI", aerial survey images, remote farm management, smart irrigation and fertilization systems, soil and leaf sensors, smart insect traps and pest detection devices, and he confirmed that artificial intelligence is currently being used in grading, sorting, packaging and packaging.

Haddad explained that labor accounts for about 70% of production costs, stressing that technological development will contribute to reducing costs, improving production quality and increasing efficiency in the sector.

He said that landowners have turned to investing in the sector, and more than 90% of palm farmers hold degrees of no less than a bachelor's degree, while the state provided easy financing through the Agricultural Credit Institution.

He reviewed the distribution of palm holdings in the Jordan Valley, explaining that more than 60% of the holdings fall within the category of medium holdings and the percentage of large farms exceeding 250 dunams hardly exceeds 2%. Haddad pointed to the large expansion of palm cultivation in the Wadi Araba region, which is still outside these calculations, and these new areas depend on groundwater in that region and have been leased with long-term contracts with the Jordan Valley Authority

In marketing, he explained that quality, appearance, taste, packaging and price form the core factors influencing the purchase of dates, followed by health considerations, origin of the product, and then the variety, pointing to the importance of these elements with the widening of global competition and the increase in unknown production in multiple regions of the world, and the variation in product characteristics according to its environment.

He identified challenges in the abundance and quality of water, the availability of trained labor and its costs, insect and epidemic diseases, indiscriminate expansion, instability of agricultural policies, marketing difficulties and global competition.

In contrast, he presented opportunities including increasing global demand for dates and organic products, awareness of their nutritional value, interest in food security, the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on quality, rapid technological development, alternative and solar energy, in addition to awareness of climate change and consumer tastes, as factors that open new fields for Jordanian date production.

For his part, Malhas confirmed that the date sector in Jordan is one of the promising sectors in the Kingdom, pointing to the high volume of unknown date production in Jordan.

He pointed out that the session highlighted the reality of the sector and its stages of development, and identified the investment and export opportunities available to it, alongside the challenges facing farmers and producers.

At the end of the session, an extensive discussion took place among the attendees, addressing the reality of palm cultivation and date production in Jordan, opportunities for expansion in foreign markets, and challenges related to water, labor and marketing, and ways to enhance the competitiveness of the sector.