As Pakistani dried dates grow to be expensive, Kutch farmers launch dehydration plant

WITH THE harvesting season of recent dates taking off, 4 farmers of Anjar taluka of Kutch district on Sunday launched their date dehydration plant, first-of-its-kind within the state, with an purpose to cater to the home market of dried dates presently serviced by imports from Pakistan. Their enterprise coincides with what guarantees to be a good-crop yr in Kutch, the “dates bowl” of the nation.
With 18,825 hectare (ha) below date palm cultivation, Kutch is the most important date palm district within the nation, accounting for round 85 per cent of acreage and manufacturing of India, say scientists of Sardarkrushniagar Dantiwada Agricultural University’s Date Palm Research Station (DPRS), in Mundra, Kutch.
Farmers in Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana have additionally began cultivating this crop lately even because the nation stays depending on imports from Gulf nations and Pakistan for assembly its demand of round 3 lakh tonnes (lt) of Pind Khajoor (smooth dates) and greater than 1.5 lt of chuhhara (dried dates), they add.
Of late, farmers have been planting high-yielding Bahri selection, generally often known as Israeli selection. Just a few biotechnology laboratories have additionally developed high-quality vegetation of indigenous varieties by way of tissue tradition and began supplying to farmers.
“But seedling-origin indigenous varieties account for almost 70 per cent of total acreage of date palms in Kutch and there is huge variability in quality of fruits,” says Kapilmohan Sharma, assistant analysis scientist at DPRS.
The high quality variation leads to differentiated costs, says Vikramsinh Jadeja, normal secretary of Kutch Date Palm Growers Association (KDPGA), an organisation of round 500 farmers in Kutch.
“While premium fresh dates of indigenous varieties fetch up to Rs 400 per kilogram, some palms of indigenous varieties produce inferior quality fresh dates that fetch as low as Rs 3 per kg,” Jadeja, who owns an 8-hectare orchard in Khedoi village of Anjar taluka, says.
To handle this situation, Jadeja and three different farmers — Kishorsinh Jadeja, Praful Patel and Girish Mistry — shaped a gaggle known as Sarthi Trading and arrange a dehydration plant with a capability of 5 metric tonnes per day in Khedoi. The farmers put their plant on steam on Sunday after getting an order from Noida-headquartered Dharampal Satyapal Group to provide 200 metric tonnes of dried dates.
“Around half of three lakh metric tonnes fresh dates produced in Kutch is not fetching the best price. On the other hand, the landed cost of dried dates imported from Pakistan has gone up since direct trade from the country was suspended in the aftermath of India ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. Pakistan imports are routed through Nepal and Dubai, increasing the cost. The DS Group gave us an order to supply 200 metric tonnes of dried dates… Therefore, we sourced a custom-made plant from Ahmedabad at the cost of Rs 25 lakh and started production from Sunday,” stated 73-year-old Jadeja.
Kishorsinh and Patel too personal date palm orchards in Kheodi and neighbouring Pantiya villages respectively, whereas Mistry owns a mango orchard in Nagalpar — all in Anjar taluka.
DS Group couldn’t be reached for a remark.
Sharma of DPRS says the commerce embargo by Pakistan presents a chance to Indian farmers and processors. “We have been trying to tempt industry and farmers into the value addition business. But the issue was price competitiveness of dehydrated dates vis-à-vis dried dates imported from Pakistan.”
“In Khairpur district of Pakistan’s Sindh province, longer summer, little rainfall and sunny days allow farmers to sun-dry their kharek whereas in Kutch, monsoon and kharek harvesting season generally coincide, allowing no window for sun-drying the fruit. Therefore, the fruits require to be dehydrated mechanically, which involves a cost,” he stated, including the DPRS has been guiding farmers like Jadeja.
Sharma stated that the value of dried dates imported from Pakistan was round Rs 100 to Rs 130 in retail markets in India. But after the Balakot air strike, costs of dry dates shot as much as round Rs 250 as commerce between the 2 international locations was affected.

Harvesting of indigenous forms of darkish pink kharekh begins within the second half of June whereas the Bahri harvesting season begins at first of July. “Harvesting season typically lasts for 15 to 20 days and farmers have to sell their produce even at low rates as shelf-life of harvested kharek is not longer than a week. The DS Group has offered us a good procurement price for dried dates and asked us to be generous while procuring kharekh from farmers. If our first season goes well, we shall scale up production,” Jadeja added.
Sharma stated that high quality variation stays excessive in dried dates even imported from Pakistan and that dehydrated khareks of Kutch can match the Pakistani produce in high quality, whilst different farmers welcomed the information of date processing taking off.
“A significant portion of production from indigenous variety palms in my orchard generally lacks the quality to be marketed as fresh dates. Processing plants would help get better prices,” Shambhu Bhanushali, a date palm grower from Kanakpur village in Abadasa taluka of Kutch, stated including, “The crop looks very good this year… If it doesn’t rain for a few days, we shall have a bumper harvest.”

Kutch is among the many driest districts within the nation with lower than 17 inch common annual rainfall. “However, the summer is not long and hot enough to allow khareks to ripen and become khajoor. Therefore, farmers here have to harvest early and sell their produce,” says KP Sojitra, Gujarat state’s deputy director of horticulture in Kutch, including, save Gujarat and Mumbai, kharek consumption in different elements of India is negligible.
“But Kutch kharek has found a new market in Bangladesh in recent years. With transportation links improving, export to Bangladesh has become cheaper and is helping prices stable in the domestic market,” Ramesh Thakkar, a farmer who has a five-acre date palm orchard in Kukma village in Bhuj taluka.