Top Date Producing Countries

This chart shows the top ten date – producing countries and their annual production in tonnes in 2002.

The biggest producer of dates is the country of Egypt with nearly 1,100,000 tonnes yearly. In second place is Iran with nearly 900,000 tonnes of dates yearly; however it has less than Egypt. The combined production of Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E is about 2,800,000 tonnes but in the Gulf region the U.A.E tops all the countries with an average of 700,000 tonnes of dates annually with Saudi Arabia not far behind. Algeria’s production is about one half of the U.A.E’s output. Libya and Sudan each accounted for less than 200,000 tonnes. Oman’s production of dates is about 20% of Egypt’s figure which is about 250,000 tonnes annually.

In summary, there are 6 countries which produce more than half a million tonnes and the leading country is Egypt.