Exporters: Pakistan Took Iran’s Date Market
Iranian date exporters report that Pakistani merchants, by being present in Iran and purchasing domestic dates with new packaging, are exporting these products to the global market.
The ISNA news agency reported on Monday, December 29, in a report from the meeting of the Agricultural Commission of Tehran Chamber and quoting members of the Dried Goods Exporters Union.
According to this report, date exporters in Iran say that Pakistan has currently taken over markets for Iranian dates that have been in existence for over 30 years worldwide, and as seen in the visits of this country’s government officials to Iran, they are seeking continuous trade in dates with Iran.
TradeNews has also reported that Poland, as one of the countries buying Iranian dates, announced that it will no longer purchase dates from Iran because with the establishment of zero tariffs between Poland and Pakistan, buying dates from that country is more cost-effective for them.
Meanwhile, Iranian customs officials confirmed that 588 date palm saplings from Iran’s southern regions were returned from Qatar.
Mehrdad Jamal Arunaghi, the technical deputy of Iran’s customs, declared the value of the exported date palms at 136 thousand dollars and said these date palms were exported to Qatar between September and November of this year.
Hassan Rashid Farrokhi, head of the Date Association, told the ILNA news agency on Monday, December 29, that the reason for the return of these palms to Iran is the failure to approve their health certificates.
Qatar claims that changes were made to the health certificates of the palms and they were tampered with.
Hassan Rashid Farrokhi told the ILNA news agency on Monday, December 29, that the health certificates of these palms were not approved by Qatar, and it is still unclear on what basis and under what supervision the health certificates were issued.
He warned that if the export of palms continues, it will ultimately have a direct impact on the volume of date production and exports in the country.
News of the sale of Iran’s date palms to countries such as Kuwait and Qatar was published in early November of this year, and Bushehr Province’s radio and television also reported, citing farmers, that water scarcity was the main factor in increasing the sale of palms, with each palm being sold for the price of one and a half million tomans.
Jassem Hazbawy, head of the board of directors of the Khuzestan Province Date Palm Growers Union, also reported the crisis of date palm groves in that province and said that Abadan had six and a half million date palms before the war, which has now reached one million palms.
Source: Radio Farda
