Tunisia's date industry becomes a model: quality over quantity

Producing the most dates doesn't guarantee the most money. Tunisia seems to have worked that out.

The International Dates Council has adopted the Tunisian experience as a guiding model for its member states. The reason: Tunisia achieved the highest financial return per kilogram of exported dates. It did so by focusing on quality and added value rather than sheer volume.

You may remember that Tunisia already ranks among the world's top date exporters, with its Deglet Nour variety driving much of its export revenue. Now the question is how others can follow.

The council is making field visits to Tunisian processing and packaging units. Its goal is a joint marketing and manufacturing strategy for its members, who represent about 80% of the world's date-producing countries.

The plan centres on three things: transferring technology, developing processing industries and making the whole sector more competitive. In short, the race in dates is shifting from who harvests the most to who adds the most value.