Egyptian date harvest yields generous crop, but exports lag

About 1.8 million tonnes of dates are produced annually, but only about 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes are sold overseas because of a lack of refrigeration and transport capacity, he said.

On the western bank of the River Nile, just south of the capital Cairo, farmers have been climbing palm trees to harvest dates that are spread out on sheets and left to dry in the sun for about a week. The dates farmed in Dahshur, Giza, are then washed, pressed and packed into boxes.

Egypt is a top producer of dates but ranks only 12th among exporters, selling most to Indonesia, Malaysia and Morocco, said Ezz El-Din Gadallah al-Abbasi, an official at Egypt's agriculture ministry. About 1.8 million tonnes of dates are produced annually, but only about 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes are sold overseas because of a lack of refrigeration and transport capacity, he said.