Dates

Pilot activities

Dates

Growing date palm trees in Jordan is a recent success story and the sector has been growing steadily over the past two decades. Climatological conditions for the tree are excellent in Jordan Valley because of the area’s hot weather during summer and its moderate temperatures during winter as well as its nutritious soil. Over the past ten years, more than 30.000 date palm trees have been planted in the Jordan Valley. The Medjool type of date that the project is working with, is considered the king of dates all over the world.

Given today’s prices, date palms take eight years to repay their investment after planting. Jordan produces around 10.000 tonnes of Medjool dates a year of which 50% is exported. Exports are mainly to high end markets that are willing to pay a good price for a product that is delicious and can be included in a healthy lifestyle. Currently, there are over 300.000 trees of Medjool palm dates in Jordan, which will continue to be a growing numbers in the upcoming years.

International competition has become fierce however, whereby one of the challenges to Medjool date farming is that small farmers often suffer from marketing problems and lack of packaging facilities. In addition, a large hindrance to growing dates in recent years has become the Red Palm Weevil, a destructive beetle that eats into the trunk of the tree and will continue eating until the tree is hollowed out and collapses.