The Egyptian Medjool season is progressing nicely with demand high and prices rocketing, to the delight of growers. Khaled El-Haggan, CEO of Haggan Group, shares his insights and announces major changes in the sector for the years to come.
The campaign was preceded by a calm summer, less eventful than the previous campaign, which helped improve crop quality. El-Haggan shares, "Unlike the previous summer, marked by sandstorms, the summer of 2024 was rather calm. There was high temperatures, which was reflected in the size of the Medjool dates, but which still left many crops classified as premium. There weren't many fruit losses, but the proportion of super jumbo sizes dropped from 10% to 5% year-on-year, and that of jumbo dates from 22% to 10%. That's no cause for concern, as we're seeing strong demand, including for large and medium sizes."
"Demand for Medjool dates this season is beyond any expectations," El-Haggan enthuses. "Since the launch of the season two months ago, buyers have been rushing to Egypt to close deals. Demand is coming from all over the world, including Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Europe, the Far East, Russia, Bangladesh, Turkey, and elsewhere. This demand is due to the growing popularity of Medjool dates and the acquisition of experience by Egyptian growers, which translates into premium quality dates".
Egyptian growers can't resist joining this highly profitable sector. El-Haggan says: "Just think that volumes will rise from 50-60,000 tonnes this year to 450,000 tonnes in 5 years! There are a lot of new Medjool and other date plantations at the moment. The opportunity element is attracting a lot of growers, which will certainly cause instability. I tell newcomers that they need to have an understanding of quality and that top-quality dates don't come without exemplary farming operations, and this will certainly take time. To the customers, I say that with the explosion in the number of growers, they better choose their growers well."
In terms of demand trends, El-Haggan classifies them into three categories: "There is a need for premium, or class A, dates. In this category, we select semi-dry Medjool dates with a dark color, a high degree of skin wrinkling, less than 1% skin separation, and less than 1% skin defects. It comes in 3 different sizes: 1kgm box, half kg box, and 3 individual fruits in a pyramid-shaped packaging."
"Then there's a need for intermediate categories, with proven taste acquisition, but at lower prices than Class A. Finally, there is a significant need for dates with simple packaging, for which consumers are primarily interested in the health and energy benefits of Medjool dates, and have less regard for their shape, size, or packaging. All these needs are justified and deserve the utmost care regarding food safety, and the selection of dates and packaging materials. We see currently that the market is showing that the large 5 kg and 1 kg consumer packs are holding up well and are still very much in demand, while the small packs and individual packs sold in supermarkets are still in a growth phase."
The grower concludes, "At El-Haggan Group, we have decided to dedicate a brand to each category of consumers' needs, which are respectively Altamra for the first category, Altamoura for the middle class, and soon we will launch the Tamraya brand dedicated to the class C category. Alongside Medjool dates, we are currently conducting trials to launch commercial-scale production of other varieties such as Khalas, Sokkary, Sagaie, Shishi, Raziz, Nabtet Seif, Khadrawy, etc."
For more information:
Khaled El-Haggan
Haggan Group
Tel: +201222105631
Email: [email protected]
www.haggangroup.com