In monetary terms, Indian imported dates of Rs3.423 billion against the imports of 3.31 billion last year, official sources told APP.

It was followed by USA and UK that imported dried dates of Rs51.707 million and Rs51.980 million respectively.

Other countries that imported dried dates from Pakistan during the period included Australia (Rs11.695 million), Bangladesh (Rs19.885 million), Canada (Rs16.670 million), Japan (Rs9.834 million), Saudi Arabia (Rs2.035 million), South Africa (Rs1.345 million).

Turkey also imported dates worth Rs2.647 million whereas UAE, Rs2.677 million, Qatar 0.213 million and Malaysia Rs.0.264 million.

On the other hand the major importer of fresh dates during 2010-11 was United States of America that imported 2,757,199 kilograms of dates, worth Rs237.049 million against the imports of 1,585,415 kilograms worth Rs113.529 million last year, according to data compiled by Ministry of Commerce.

This was followed by United Kingdom that imported fresh dates of Rs119.077 million during the period under review against the imports of Rs47.587 million last year.

The other countries that imported fresh dates from Pakistan included, Bangladesh that imported dates worth Rs.12.507 million, Canada (Rs7.795 million), Denmark (Rs19.734 million), and Germany (Rs63.987 million) Malaysia (4.851 million), New Zealand (7.366 million).

Similarly, Singapore imported dates worth Rs1.767 million, South Africa Rs13.770 million and Sri Lanka Rs1.598 million. Export of dates increased by 9.87 percent, during the first nine months of the fiscal year 2010-11 as compared to last year.

Exports of dates (both fresh and dried) were recorded at Rs4.098 billion during July-March (2010-11) against the exports of Rs3.730 billion during July-March (2009-1).

During the period, the exports of dried dates increase by 4.41, by growing from Rs3.453 billion to Rs.3.606 billion, according to data provided by the ministry.

Similarly, the exports of fresh dates increased from Rs276.519 million to Rs492.496 million, showing an increase of 78.10 percent.

The over all exports of fresh dates stood at 6,257,961 kilogram in 2010-11 against the exports of 4,853,391 kilograms in 2009-10, showing an increase of 28.93 percent.

However, based on the quantity, exports of dried dates decrease by 10 percent by falling from 105,959,744 kilograms in 2009-10 to 94,927,215 kilograms in 2010-11.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan is one of the main growers of dates. It follows Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and UAE in the list of top date producing countries with about 10 percent share of global production.

Balochistan is the largest date producing province followed by Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011