India has emerged as the major importers of dried dates from Pakistan as it imported 9,147,817 kilograms of dates during July-March (2010-11) against the imports of 10,291,128 last year.
In monetary terms, India imported dates of Rs3.423 billion against the imports of Rs3.31 billion last year, official sources said. This was followed by USA and UK that imported dried dates worth Rs51.707 million and Rs51.980 million respectively. Other countries that imported dried dates from Pakistan during the period include Australia (Rs11.695 million), Bangladesh (Rs19.885 million), Canada (Rs16.670 million), Japan (Rs9.834 million), Saudi Arabia (Rs2.035 million), South Africa (Rs1.345 million).
Turkey also imported dates worth Rs.2.647 million whereas UAE imported dates worth Rs.2.677 million, Qatar 0.213 million and Malaysia Rs.0.264 million.
On the other hand the major importer of fresh dates during 2010-11 was United States of America that imported 2,757,199 kilograms of dates, worth Rs237.049 million against the imports of 1,585,415 kilograms worth Rs113.529 million last year, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Commerce. This was followed by the United Kingdom that imported fresh dates of Rs119.077 million during the period under review against the imports of Rs47.587 million last year.
Other countries that imported fresh dates from Pakistan comprised of, Bangladesh that imported dates worth Rs12.507 million, Canada (Rs7.795 million), Denmark (Rs19.734 million), Germany (Rs63.987 million) Malaysia (Rs4.851 million), New Zealand (Rs7.366 million). Similarly, Singapore imported dates worth Rs1.767 million, South Africa Rs13.770 million and Sri Lanka Rs.1.598 million. The over all exports of dates from the country increased by 9.87 per cent during the first nine months of the fiscal year 2010-11 as against the corresponding period last year.
Exports of dates (both fresh and dried) were recorded at Rs4.098 billion during July-March (2010-11) against the exports of Rs.3.730 billion during July-March (2009-1). During the period, the exports of dried dates increase by 4.41 per cent, by growing phenomenally from Rs3.453 billion to Rs3.606 billion, according to data provided by the ministry. Similarly, the exports of fresh dates increased from Rs276.519 million to Rs492.496 million, showing an increase of 78.10 per cent. Overall exports of fresh dates stood at 6,257,961 kilogram in 2010-11 against the exports of 4,853,391 kilograms in 2009-10, showing an increase of 28.93 per cent.
However, based on volumes, exports of dried dates decreased by 10 per cent by falling from 105,959,744 kilograms in 2009-10 to 94,927,215 kilograms in 2010-11.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan is one of the main growers of dates. It follows Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and UAE in the list of top date producing countries with about 10 per cent share of global production. Balochistan is the largest date producing province followed by Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
India major importer of Pakistani dried dates
