Muscat – Nakheel Oman Development Company (NODC) will export a shipment of dates to Singapore in keeping with the current efforts to increase national income and market Omani products.

NODC recently tweeted that a consignment of Omani dates, packaged with the brand name ‘Zaad’, is being prepared for export to Singapore. The packaging, processing, marketing and export of the dates are being overseen by NODC, the investment arm of the One Million Date Palms Plantation Project of the Diwan of Royal Court.

In February 2021, the first batch of Omani dates, also packaged with the brand name ‘Zaad’, was exported to India.

NODC is partnering with the Diwan of Royal Court – represented by the Directorate General of the One Million Date Palms Plantation Project – and Oman National Investments Development Company (Tanmia) to export Omani dates.

NODC is the main recipient of the dates, as well as the palm waste, harvested from 11 farms distributed across six governorates that form part of the One Million Date Palms Plantation Project.

Another company, Oman Dates Production and Packing Company, which was established in 2018, has invested in a project to set up an integrated factory in Barka and six collection centres in different governorates.

NODC purchases date products from farmers, and processes and packages these to sell in local markets and also for export.

In March 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources (MAFWR) announ-ced the implementation of a project to create model fields for date palms. The ministry has set guidelines for Omani farmers to benefit from the model fields of date palms project financed by the Agricultural and Fisheries Development Fund. It has informed that it will provide farmers date seedlings at nominal prices.

MAFWR has announced another project that will look into replacing date palms that produce little or no dates. Under that project, date seedlings will be provided for free.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion (MoCIIP), it received 187,150 tonnes of dates from 65 farmers from across the country in 2020.

‘As in the previous years, the ministry is continuing to give subsidies to farmers who supply dates. This is in addition to the subsidy given to farmers who export their crops directly,’ MoCIIP stated.