Iran's date industry says output and exports could double in five years with policy reform

Iran's date industry could double its production and export capacity within the next five years if management policies are revised and the production and processing chain receives targeted support, according to Hadi Moghadam, vice-president of the National Date Association of Iran. He spoke on Friday morning at a session on date and fisheries exports held in the meeting hall of the Khorramshahr Chamber of Commerce, in remarks reported by Tahlil Bazaar.

Water stress compounded by policy friction

Moghadam said the sector is coping with management stress on top of water stress, and that getting past the current conditions requires serious and planned action rather than ad hoc measures. He listed the way the exchange rate was liberalised, the ceilings applied to trading cards, the difficulty of discharging foreign-currency repatriation obligations, and the date export bans imposed in past years without clear or acceptable reasons being given to industry operators.

Those decisions, he said, did more than unsettle the domestic market: they cost the sector part of its export markets and raised the risk carried by growers, processors and exporters alike. Lost market share in dates is slow to recover, because buyers switch to alternative origins when supply from one country becomes unpredictable.

Customs base value raised without consultation

On the customs export base value for dates — the reference price used by Iranian customs in export documentation and in calculating an exporter's hard-currency repatriation obligation — Moghadam said the rate was increased last year without expert assessment and without any enquiry to the date association. That change, he said, created problems for companies active in the field.

He argued that decisions on restricting or banning date exports should be taken with the condition of the entire industry chain in view, together with an assessment of their effects on foreign markets, and with the participation and advice of the sector's specialised trade bodies.

Khuzestan's heavy export exposure

Moghadam, who also sits on the board of representatives of the Khorramshahr Chamber of Commerce, said the bulk of the dates produced in Khuzestan province is destined for export. Export policy, he said, should therefore be drafted to match the specific characteristics of the crop and the production capacity of the province.

That exposure is what makes administrative shocks expensive at the regional level: a province whose crop is largely sold abroad has limited domestic absorption capacity when export channels are closed or when documentation requirements tighten mid-season.

Value chain plan and chain-based lending

Work on a formal date value chain was pursued under the previous government and meetings were held on the subject, Moghadam said, but the process stopped and needs to be returned to the agenda. He described the first step as changing how the date industry is viewed, and named a set of concrete measures:

• Equipping processing workshops
• Proper management of date orchards
• Bank facilities structured around the date chain, so that financing covers production, processing and export together
• Involvement of specialised associations in export decision-making
• Reviving the stalled date value chain programme

Moghadam did not disclose current production or export volumes for the industry, a cost estimate for the measures he set out, or a target figure for exports at the end of the five-year period. No government response to the association's proposals was reported at the session, which also covered fisheries exports from the region.