Mahfoudh Al-Shami & Mohammed Omar – Khuyut
For the fifth year in a row, the farmer Amin bin Zahira Al-Ukaimi, the owner of the largest date farm in the Khabb wa ash Sha'af district in Al-Jawf governorate (east of Sana'a), complains of the stagnation of the various dates his farm produces due to the reluctance of merchants to buy the crop.
Al-Ukaimi tells "Khuyut" that more than a million palm trees in the Khabb wa ash Sha'af district have borne fruit and their crops are ready for harvesting. However, he points out that this large crop does not receive the required attention from the relevant government agencies represented by the Ministries of Agriculture, Trade, and Industry, as well as the trading companies that undervalue farmers, when they buy their crops at low prices.
In addition, the palm trees are also ready for harvesting, and dates are on their way to consumption, but the problem this year still exists as in previous years, according to Al-Ukaimi. The absence of an effective role represented by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Union, in standing by the farmer when he does not find anyone to buy his date crop from him represents a major obstacle to selling dates on the condition of profit. This forces him to offer them cheaply and at a low price to trading companies; otherwise, the crop will be ruined.
The production of this area, " Khabb wa ash Sha'af," in Al-Jawf governorate reaches more than a thousand tons of dates annually. However, despite this abundance of the crop, the farmer cannot find a central market to sell his fruits in Al-Jawf but rather takes them to Sanaa or Saada to offer them to merchants who buy them at a low price.
According to the data of the Agricultural Statistics Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in Sana’a, for the year 2021, palm cultivation in Yemen comes in second place in the crop area for fruits, after mango, at a rate of 15.4%, with an area estimated at about 14,767 hectares, in addition to the amount of production reaching 66139 tons.
Whereas Hadhramaut governorate ranks first in palm production at approximately 33,054 tons, with an area estimated at approximately 6,153 hectares, followed by Al-Hudaydah governorate with approximately 19,434 tons, with an agricultural area estimated at approximately 5,028 hectares, while the rest of the area and production quantities distributed among the governorates of Al-Mahra, Shabwa, Al-Jawf, and Abyan, Lahj, Ma'rib, Taiz, Sa'adah, and Hajjah.
The director of the Agriculture and Irrigation Office in the Khabb wa ash Sha'af district in Al-Jawf governorate, in his interview with "Khuyut", attributes the reason for the stagnation of dates to the failure to open purchasing points in the governorate by the dates merchants and the central market, which requires obligating merchants to buy the product from farmers in the governorate, encouraging them and preventing imports from abroad, and attracting investors to expand palm cultivation, noting that Al-Jawf governorate cultivates all types of palm trees.
Gassas Shubrin, likewise, admits that there is an official negligence, as the governorate’s agriculture office, in cooperation with the security side, is working to arrest the date smugglers from the border governorate of Najran (southern Saudi Arabia) to Al-Jawf governorate (north of Yemen), via desert roads, where smuggling causes a double dumping in the market and a stagnation of Al-Jawf's dates.
Obstacles and Problems
Palm farmers in Al-Jawf suffer from several problems, including the lack of factories or places to store the date crop for a period after harvesting, which forces them to sell according to the requirements of the buyer, who does not pay the fair value. All this is to avoid disastrous consequences for farms, the worst of which is spoilage and damage.
Further, the farmers describe their suffering and losses over the past years with regret, as they attribute the spoilage of their dates due to rain and their exposure to insect attack to the lack of central markets in Al-Jawf.
Palm farmers in Al-Jawf are demanding the establishment of a central market for local dates so that merchants can come to it, on the condition that prices are balanced and set in the interest of both the farmer and the merchant, as is the case with many fruit and vegetable products.
Therefore, after many appeals and demands, Al-Tilal Company, under official pressure—which is a private trading and investment company owned by investors—undertook to purchase the crop from the farmers.
Despite this, the problem of palm marketing that farmers suffer from in this governorate has not been solved, as a number of them reported in separate conversations with "Khuyut." This is due to a dispute that broke out with the company that offered them an unfair price, as it wants to pay less than 500 Yemeni riyals per kilogram of dates and take all the varieties at one price, noting that some of the luxury varieties reach a price of about 1,500 Yemeni riyals per kilogram.
In this context, the director of Al-Tilal Company, Jamil Al-Qayfi, speaks to “Khuyut” to comment on the statements of farmers in Al-Jawf who blamed the company for the stagnation of date crops and the undervaluation of their dates, by saying: “The dates that reach us are not of premium quality, and some of them are not suitable for human use, but the state forces us to buy them. However, we face many challenges and difficulties in selling them, as the consumer chooses high-quality dates, which are often imported varieties from abroad.”
Al-Qayfi adds: "The good dates of Al-Jawf are sold in the governorates, and we negotiate the purchase with agents, who want to charge a high price for the dates, and the number of farmers who reach us does not exceed 30%, compared to the agents who are greedy for large profits."
Furthermore, as a result of the lack of a government policy encouraging palm cultivation and increasing the production of dates, obstacles multiply farmers’ losses, including poor storage and the reluctance of the private sector to invest in post-harvest areas such as packaging and distribution. Whereas Al-Qayfi holds the relevant public authorities and farmers responsible for the absence of good varieties of dates, attributing the reasons for this to the lack of strategic agricultural plans that develop date crops and give importance to diversity in varieties of dates, following the example of Arab producing countries such as Saudi Arabia.
Although the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation issued a decision regarding the importers of dates, prohibiting the entry of any shipments of dates in any form until the end of the season for the local product and its marketing, the merchants did not comply with it, according to the statements of farmers, who are suffering from the stagnation in their date crops. They accuse the government of being lenient with importers.
For his part, Zaid Askar, the director of the Agricultural Services Corporation branch of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in Al-Jawf governorate, speaking to "Khuyut", accuses the previous governments of following a policy of importing foreign dates at the expense of local ones, which caused the stagnation, which he promises will be addressed as soon as possible.
Deliberate Marginalization
The agricultural researcher, Zayed bin Theibah, a resident of Khabb Wash Sha’af, holds the official authorities represented by the Ministries of Agriculture, Trade, and Industry responsible for allowing traders and investors to import foreign dates, which causes the stagnation and spoilage of Al-Jawf dates.
In addition, the noticeable negligence by government and public authorities makes the products of Al-Jawf farmers of dates appear to be of lower quality as a result of poor marketing and packaging, which pushes consumers to buy imported varieties. This prompts merchants, according to Bin Theiba’s interview with "Khuyut", to reduce the quantity of Al-Jawf dates, which poses an imminent threat to the future of palm cultivation.
On the other hand, the palm farmers in Al-Jawf are demanding the creation of a central market for local dates so that merchants can come to it, on the condition that the prices are balanced and set in the interest of both the farmer and the merchant, as is the case with many fruit and vegetable products.
The stagnation of the dates crops in Al-Jawf causes the death of 100 thousand palm trees in the valleys of Khabb wa Sha’af, according to farmers, which leaves them frustrated as a result of this stagnation. Consequently, this may lead them to completely refrain from palm cultivation.
In this regard, the agricultural expert, Siddeeq Jibreel, in his interview with "Khuyut", holds the competent authorities represented by agricultural public offices, agricultural cooperative societies, and agricultural extension institutions responsible for the shortcomings in the lack of sufficient knowledge of the origins of dates and their marketing in a traditional way and the lack of availability of date recycling factories in the required and desired form for sellers and consumers.
Jibreel stresses that the most important reasons for not developing date production are the lack of proper care, the absence of agricultural guidance aspects of the crop, and work on cultivation of improved varieties with high yields. In addition to the absence of the required attention, this led to a decline in the productivity of dates, and then most merchants turned to importing some varieties that are useful medicinally and profitably.
Likewise, the agricultural expert, Siddiq Jibril, believes that the ongoing war in the country for eight years has caused a decline in palm cultivation, as the Tihama factory for the production of dates has become disabled and invalid, which has negatively reflected on the farmers of Al-Jawf.
Constant Suffering
11 farmers who came from Al-Jawf to Sana’a offer their goods of dates in traditional bags inside the central market in the Mathbah area (northwest of Sana’a), and they wait for the merchants who come to buy the crop after they became desperate about the prices offered by the delegates, which are prices that do not meet their ambitions in terms of reasonable profit at the very least.
“The marketing policy has opened the door wide for the import of foreign agricultural products, including dates, of which the import quantities reach almost 50 thousand tons per year, and this is at the expense of the local product, which has not received attention, care, publicity, or promotion.”
Similarly, Munassar Yahya Dubbah (45 years old) came from the Khabb wa ash Sha’af area in Al-Jawf to this central market to offer his harvest of dates for sale. He speaks to "Khuyut", saying: "We suffer from fatigue and pain. We feel heartbroken and anguished. We arrive with the crop in Sanaa and Saada, and all we find is the "undervaluation" by the merchants who control the market. They want us to sell at the lowest prices that are not even equal to what we spent on our crop until it is ready."
While the economic researcher, Rasheed Al-Haddad, in his comment on this issue to Khayat, stresses the importance of paying attention to the local crop of dates, considering Al-Jawf governorate one of the most important agricultural governorates in Yemen, as it produces more than 10 varieties of palm trees, including Rutab and dry dates, the most famous of which is Sagai.
According to this economic researcher, there are also more than a million palm trees in the Khabb wa ash Sha’af district. However, despite the advantages of Al-Jawf dates that surpass those of imported ones in terms of quality, the marketing and packaging processes take place in a traditional and unorganized manner.
Al-Haddad continues: "The national production rate of dates, in a country where the number of palm trees exceeds 12 million trees, is still less than the annual need for dates in the Yemeni market. However, no government decisions have been issued over the past years prohibiting the import of foreign dates and replacing them with local dates for local consumption."
Random Methods
The member of the Agricultural and Fisheries Media Unit of the higher Agricultural and Fisheries Committee of the Sana’a Authority, Mohammed Saleh Hatem, confirms to "Khuyut" that the marketing policy has opened the door wide to the import of foreign agricultural products, including dates, of which import quantities reach approximately 50 thousand tons annually, and this is at the expense of the local product, which has not received attention, care, publicity, or promotion.
On top of that, the reason for the stagnation of the dates is due to the failure to establish factories that clean, sort, and package date products like the rest of the world and to the absence of marketing policy and agricultural guidance that contribute to the development and improvement of the product's quality. Actually, date cultivation in Yemen is still primitive and traditional. It is still sold in random ways, in plastic bags not intended for dates, which reduces the competition of local dates in front of the imported ones.
He further points out that the Higher Agricultural and Fisheries Committee has begun to organize, support, and care for the cultivation of dates by establishing two date factories, one in Tihama and the other in Sanaa, in addition to a factory in Hadhramaut. As these factories will receive the production quantities from farmers and then clean and package them in the right way.
Accordingly, the specter of the stagnation continues to exhaust and burden palm farmers in the Khabb wa ash Sha’af district, in Al-Jawf governorate. So, with the advent of the new season, the farmer Ameen bin Zahira Al-Ukaimi, who is having problems selling his crop this year, fears that the situation will remain as it is in the coming years. All farmers hope that the government will help them in developing palm cultivation, date production, packaging factories, and stopping the import of foreign dates.
