The economic feasibility of byproducts as a part of the value chain of the date palm sector

The article presents date palm and date palm by products added value efforts and opportunities in the NENA region. Some of FAO’s, Egyptian’s, and Oman’s efforts and achievements were used as success stories and lessons to learn from and to enhance. Cost-benefit and competitiveness analysis (CBCA) for date palm value added (DPVC) as developed by FAO experts, its approach, methodology, indicators been used, and some related issues, were presented. The article considers the traditional by-products of date palm (which may reach net wet weight 60-100 kg palm^‑1 annually depending on their age, cultivar, environment, and local agriculture practices) in addition to low-quality dates, not of proper market value, and all that can be produced by the date palm and industries related to those products as renewable resources. The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) of the Sultanate of Oman had conducted for Technical and Economic Feasibility Studies for four projects to use date palm and date palm by-products, all showed reasonable (economic, social, development, and environmental), impacts on stakeholders and societies. The study recommends FAO to join hands with (KIAAI) to focus a training program to all related stakeholders of the date palm sector in the NENA countries producing dates to adopt an action plan to establish a series of value-added commercial projects program may present conceptual theoretical back ground and pre-feasibility studies of added value commercial projects suitable for the related country.