Plunging prices put date palm growers in a bitter spot

KARACHI: Zahid Hussain, a grower from Ghotki, Sindh, has removed date palm trees from his farmland because a massive decline in the prices of this fruit for the second consecutive year have plunged him and a large number of his fellow farmers in losses.

“There is no more profit in date palms, we hardly get the expenses back,” he said.

Sindh’s multibillion date trade will come to an end once India’s 0.5 million date palm trees mature and start producing fruit in a year, stakeholders said.

Sindh grows ‘Aseel’ variety of date palm, whose 90 percent is converted into dry dates while more than 98 percent of it is exported to India.

“Due to the 200 percent duty imposed by India last year, prices in the local market have fallen miserably,” said Nisar Khaskhely, a grower from Khairpur.

Since ‘Aseel’ dates mature during the monsoon, growers don’t wait and make dry the immature crop. “Crop is bumper this year, but prices have decreased by 66 percent,” he said.

“We used to sell one tree for Rs1,500, now we are selling it for Rs500 only, expenses per tree are in addition to it and that money is not counted anywhere. At Least Rs150 to Rs500 is an expense per tree.”

Khaskhely urged the government to tie the opening of Wagah border as Afghan transit trade with India with a reduction in import duty on dates by Indian authorities. “Foreign ministry and commerce ministry should come forward and save the growers,” he suggested.

Dry dates worth more than Rs8 billion are under threat, as India has halted its import from Pakistan by slapping 200 percent import duty on it on February 16, 2019.

Stakeholders told The News that India grew 0.5 million date palm trees in Rajasthan four years ago, which would begin fruiting soon. This, they said, would put an end to dry date imports from Pakistan, as date plants start giving fruit in three to five years.

“We have been showing our concerns since the last four years, but to no avail,” Khaskhely said adding the government was not paying any attention to finding new markets for the dry date producers.

According to data of Pakistan Horticulture Development and Export Company (PHDEC), Pakistan exports only 13 percent fresh dates, while 87 percent were exported as dry dates.

Pakistan fulfils India’s dry dates demand by 99.6 percent, while the latter takes 0.4 percent from Oman. India imports 30 percent of the world’s dry dates, almost all from Pakistan. Pakistan also exports dry dates in a very small quantity to UK, Bangladesh, Germany and Turkey.

Livelihoods of around 100,000 growers and farmers was related to the date palm in the district Khairpur, Khaskhely said and added while around 200 exporters were engaged in date trading.

Sindh is the second largest date growing province in Pakistan following Balochistan.

According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics’ Yearbook 2016, Pakistan grows dates on 97,100 hectares of land. Of which, Balochistan leads with 53,200 hectares, followed by Sindh with 36,500 hectares, Punjab 5,800 hectares and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 1,600 hectares.

During that period, the country received production of 211,300 tons from Balochistan, 201,200 tons from Sindh, 42,900 tons from Punjab, and 12,300 tons from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

According to Abudullah Rafi, a grower leader at Sindh Chamber of Agriculture, Pakistan produced the lowest yield and value dates in the world, which were fed to horses in Europe.

Giving further details Khaskhely said immature dates were picked before monsoon rains and dried and processed for the market. “Date fruiting season and monsoon fall during the same months,” he added.

He suggested growing other varieties of dates, which matured earlier or later than monsoon to save the crop and added that plant tissue culture could help Sindh grow many different varieties of date palms in Sindh, including Dhaki, available in Dera Ismail Khan, Barhee, Madjool, Douglas Noor, Ajwah, Al Khumaizi, Khalasah and Rotab. “This way, the country can increase its dates’ value by leaps and bounds,” Khaskhely added.

He said around 500 plants of other varieties have been sown in Khairpur, while only tissue culture plants could save the future of date trade in Pakistan.

“We can grow hundreds of thousands of plants under tissue culture, which are developed in France, California, and the UK with a laboratory in the Middle East,” he said.

Growers further said the future of dry dates and livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people would remain at stake until serious steps were taken at the government level.

Shujauddin, another grower of date palms from Ghotki, is trying to make dry dates of the crop in his plantation, as they are not profitable anymore. “I am thinking of selling dates to people with livestock, as the price of the dry date is not profitable at all,” he said.