Maghreb News/ Lamine Gh- Palm dates in Tunisia Tyields a record crop this season but the bumper harvest failed to sweeten tempers of farmers worrying about sale prospects and price levels.
« We have a record harvest of dates this year of about 240,000 tons, » said Abdelmajid Azzar, chairman of UTAP farmers’union.
« But that abundance comes with pain for producers as there is a collapse in prices and coldness and apathy from buyers to acquire the output, » he added.
The production of Tunisian dates in 2000/2001 was roughly 100,000 tonnes before growing in the following years as more investment and modernisation of the production systems increased volumes and quality.
It had more than doubled in 2014 as the volume reached 225,000 tonnes.
After harvest, the dates are brought to conditioning units of conditioning which are equipped with physicochemical and bacteriological analysis laboratories allowing a rigorous follow-up of quality.
All certifications are delivered by competent authorities and are subjected to a rigorous controls by qualified personnel as the country protects jealously the image of its dates abroad.
« Farmers in all dates producing oases are worrying about a phenomenon this season.Conditioneers, owners of manufacuring units and exporters are not buying. They display apathy towards the harvest, » said Azzar.
« Farmers believe exporters and others are willing to provoke a collapse in prices.Farmers argue manufacturers and exporters are sitting on their hands to test farmers’ patience on lower prices, » he added.
Palm dates farmers took to the streets to vent anger, blocking out road trafficks in some protests. They achieved some results including right to unlimited exports.
The government has set a reference prices for dates of between 1,500-2,200 dinars for the kilo depending on quality.
The most popular kind of date is Deglet Nour which is marketed since 1870 .It is appreciated abroad for its brilliant light, translucent fair color, the softness of its aspect and its top quality and its special taste, according to local experts.
The country’s economic climate is weighing on. Banks, reeling from bad loans to the tourism industry which was knocked off track by terrorist attack in June when a lone Jihadist assailant massacred 38 holidaymakers lounging around on a beach resort, tightened up credit lines.
« To be fair, there is no bad faith from exporters and other buyers of dates.Banks are reluctant to grant them loans anew to finance the harvest as it was usually the case, » said Azzar.
« Banks had not been paid back by exporters and manfacturers who got loans from these lenders for last year’s season, » he added.
Tunisia exports upto 60% of its dates production Its dates are sold in about 60 countries spread over the five continents, with European markets taking the biggest share of the output.
It is home to some 5.4 million palm trees producing dates. The production of dates takes place in four oases in the south of the country where bioclimatic diversity allows the development of several sorts of oases where more than 150 varieties of dates over a large period, from the beginning of October until the end of December.
Azzar did not give estimates for dates export but Agriculture Minister Saad Sedik was quoted by local media as saying last month “this season’s date harvest looks like it will be exceptional in both quantity and quality”.
He was quoted as expecting exports to begin slowly before reaching 18 percent rise vesus the previous period to attain 118,000 tons.
Seddik has also said that efforts are being made to find new markets for Tunisian dates.
« A national consensus was reached beween the government,farmers’ respresentatives and other bodies that freeing fully exports for farmers is good for agriculture and the national economie, » said Azzar.
Export is fully open for farming products since September this year.The government had intervened in the past to tweak with exports as a way to weigh on prices and keep social peace as foods costs account for around 40 percent of the country’s inflation gauge.
The ministry expected that ratio to reach105 percent in 2015 against 60 percent for the full year of 2014. Record olive oil revenues accounted for 56 percent of the total of these exports against 17 percent in the same period last year.
Government expects the dates export to take olive oil place in bolstering rade balance as olive oil harvest shrank from last year’s exceptional yield.