Iraq: New date season begins |
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Iraq's once world-famous date industry, bludgeoned by war and lack of funds, may have suffered on the global market, but stallholders in Baghdad are stocking up once more with the season's first crop. "The first dates, the sayer, have arrived at the central Rashid market from Basra" in the South, said wholesaler Abdelamir Abu-Alla, 47, sitting in his little office. To prove the quality of his wares, he munches on a dozen ripe dates, washed down with a yogurt drink, the traditional companion to the luscious fruit.
Tasty they may be, but Abu-Alla is not happy. "This year, the quality of the dates has suffered because of the consequences of war, sand storms, pollution and a lack of pesticides.
"Before the war, planes used to spray the palm trees with insecticides. That doesn't happen any more. For three years, we have done nothing and the quality has suffered.
"If we want to return to our date tradition, we must let the cultivators know via the media and give them the means to treat their trees", he added, dressed in a simple tunic with a chequered headscarf wrapped round his head.
Despite flagging quality and falling prices, he still hopes to export the "best date in the world" -- the barhi -- to other countries in the Gulf. Last year, Abu-Alla managed to ship 3,200 tons to Dubai.
The barhi is the country's most prized and expensive date, which is largely grown near the port of Fao.
Iraq's string of wars in the last 20 years, the Iran-Iraq conflict, the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 invasion, not to mention pollution, have blighted date trees, a symbol of Iraq, the Agriculture Ministry confirmed.
What was once "the country of millions of date palms" has seen the number of its trees fall from 33 million in 1958 to 13 million today.
After oil, dates were once the country's second largest exports. They were smuggled -- like oil products -- by wooden boats down the Gulf in defiance of UN sanctions during the last 13 years of Saddam Hussein's rule.
In the region around Basra, some five million palm trees have been destroyed by war and Saddam Hussein's decision to drain the southern marshes as part of his policy of repressing the country's Shiite Muslim majority, ministry experts said.
Abu-Alla can reel off the names of 50 varieties by heart, out of hundreds in Iraq, and talks about the delights of the fruit, harvested from July to December, eaten fresh or dried.
Demand for dates explodes in the Muslim dawn-to-dusk fasting month of Ramadan, when the fruit is an overture to the iftar, the fast-breaking meal taken at sunset.
Senior officials in the former regime, including Saddam's elder son Uday, who chaired a date-exporting company, lined their pockets with the industry's takings, according to Abu Alla.
Another market stallholder, Abu Salam, claims that Iraqi dates have hidden secrets, notably for his male customers. "They are the Viagra of the Arabs", he said, chuckling.
In an effort to restart the industry, a 400-million-dollar project to plant 160,000 trees over eight years began in April, financed by the Iraqi interim administration and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
© Monday Morning 2004
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