The interest in dates continue to grow around the world, with Medjool dates from Israel in particularly good demand. Yacov Hason, marketing manager of Erel Dates based in Israel, who has just returned from Asia Fruit Logistica in Hong Kong says, "We export to Europe, the U.S., to South Africa as well as China, we now also started to send to Russia. We send the Medjool dates almost everywhere in the world, including to India and Thailand. Now I'm negotiating with someone in Taiwan after meeting them at Asia Fruit Logistica."
Hason is also a date grower who has 100 Dunham (10 hectares). "My wife works with labourers, they are busy in the middle of the cutting. We started harvesting in the beginning of August. We will probably be done with harvesting at the end of September or middle of October."
Erel Dates is owned by the big supermarket group Osher Ad in Israel. They also have supermarkets in New York called Bingo. "All the fresh fruit and vegetables comes from Erel agricultural produce. They also have a company only for the dates who send it to the supermarkets. They have almost 22 very big supermarkets in Israel. They have five Bingo supermarkets in New York, where we send around 200 tons of Medjool dates."
He says their own supermarket takes a lot of fruit. "I give them the dates from all our growers after sorting it. They buy 500 to 600 tons of only dates every year. Erel Dates also sell 200 tons of Deglet Nour, 200 tons of Barhi dates and the majority of 4,500 tons of Medjool dates. In the local market we sell around 1,000 tons."
Israel has had a scorching summer, while not ideal for humans, the dates thrive leading to very good quality says Hason. "The quality of the skin separation of the dates is perfect. Most of them are premium choice this year because it was very, very hot for a long time in Israel. Although, the size is a bit smaller, there's not a lot of super large and jumbo with more large, medium to small date sizes available."
Israel dates markets expanding
More markets around the world have come to appreciate the dates from Israel. "We also send to Brazil and Argentina. We export to Holland and France too. In Switzerland, we send to Migro retailers who buy super juicy Medjool. We have all kinds of sizes and quality that everyone takes according to what price they want. We find dates for everyone according to what they need. The premium, jumbo and large also sell well in the local Israel market."
Hason is happy that their local currency, the Israeli Shekel, is not too strong, allowing them to recover further from the challenging two years during the Covid period. "The Shekel is very good, we're able to get a good return, we are happy to recover until now after the last two years following Covid," he concludes.
For more information:
Yacov Hason
Erel Dates
Tel: +972 52 4703123
[email protected]
www.ereldates.com/en/