Rise in demand for dates in Kurdistan Region during Ramadan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The demand for dates continues to increase daily during the holy month of Ramadan in the Kurdistan Region as supplies continue to restock the markets continuously.

Dates are considered a popular fruit in the Kurdistan Region with their demand especially increasing during Ramadan days. Most of the Muslim residents that fast during the holy month break their fast by eating dates - a common practice in Islam.

More than 300,000 tons of dates are sold annually in the Kurdistan Region. There are 31 types of dates in the market, sixteen of which are local Iraqi imported dates while the other types are mainly exported from countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, and Israel.

The prices of the dates vary according to the quality, but a kilogram typically costs between 1,000 and 20,000 Iraqi dinars. 

“Dates are getting expensive,” Kawa Karim, a vendor, told Rudaw's Bakhtyar Qadir. “Before Ramadan, Maryam dates [brand name] were 25,000 Iraqi dinars and now it is 27,000 Iraqi dinars in the Kurdistan Region.”

During Ramadan, most food traders opt to bring dates to the market because of the very high demand.

The Sulaimani mayor’s office on Wednesday said that around 810 kilograms of spoiled dates were seized by authorities from the markets.

“Iraq has banned dates from being imported to the country for two years in order to protect the local ones, but they are smuggled into the Kurdistan Region,” Mustafa Abdulrahman, head of the Kurdistan Region’s Import and Export Union said on Saturday.