Regional and international marketing of ‘Mejhoul’ dates

The data about date production provided by the specialized regional and international organization does not distinguish between date cultivars. Therefore, the information provided in this paper was gathered with the most appreciated cooperation of members of local agencies in the main ‘Mejhoul’ producing countries. Based on the collected data, ‘Mejhoul’ dates production in 2020 was estimated to 105,489 t which represented 1.16% of the global date production. Six countries led by Israel and the USA produced 99.95% of the total ‘Mejhoul’ production and exported to the international market 63.27% of their total production. This situation is expected to change tremendously within the forthcoming years due to the important extension of ‘Mejhoul’ cultivation in some date producing countries mainly Morocco and Egypt. This paper describes the geographical distribution of the main destinations of the ‘Mejhoul’ dates exported by the different producing countries as well as the marketing standards used by these late. It also discuss the challenges faced by the ‘Mejhoul’ sectors with regards to its increasing production.