Top 10 Date-Producing countries, 2001

The date palm is one of the oldest fruit trees in the Arabian countries and a most important fruit for people. Date fruit is marketed all over the world as a fresh fruit .It is produced largely in the hot arid regions of the world i.e. GCC countries. The bar graph shows date production in tonnes for the world's top countries in 2001.

First, Egypt has the most of date production, with over a million tonnes, and Iran was a close second, with around 0.9 million. Third, came the UAE and Saudi Arabia, about 740,000 tonnes each. Then came Pakistan with around 620,000 tonnes and Iraq were not far behind. Other countries had less production. Algeria produced around 400,000 tonnes. Oman came next to Algeria, with 250,000 tonnes. In contrast, Libya and Sudan produced under 0.2 million each.

In conclusion, date production in the world is only confined to a small number of countries, most of them being the Arab countries. The date industry in the Arab world is not yet fully developed.