“Dates are available year round, but harvest is limited to three months a year. For the Medjool variety, harvest season starts at the beginning of August and lasts until mid September. Harvest of the Deglet Noor variety starts mid September until the end of October. This past year’s supply was very good. Dates do not tolerate rain very well and the previous two years, supplies were significantly reduced by heavy rains during harvest time. As a result of ideal harvest circumstances in 2014, the quality was the best in the past several years,” said Legawiec.
Dates are very suitable for storage and last well over a year. As a result, SunDate is able to ship 365 days a year. For a while, shipping peak times were limited to the holidays. Due to massive demand growth, the American public is asking for availability year round and SunDate has grown to meet its customers’ needs. The Medjool variety is popular for raw consumption. The Deglet Noor variety on the other hand is very suitable for processing. Chopped, diced, or in the form of powder or paste, Deglet Noor dates are used as an ingredient in products like cookies, salads, cereals and granola bars. Increasingly, the Deglet Noor is also used as a sweetener. “It has a natural caramel taste to it and does not need to be highly processed for sweetness. Health conscious consumers in particular prefer date sweetener over HFCS,” said Legawiec.
SunDate’s dates are being distributed within the United States, but also exported to all continents on the globe, including South America, Europe, Australia and Asia. According to the USDA, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands are the largest buyers of US dates. For its exports to Europe and Canada, the United States competes with Israel who is the world’s largest exporter of dates.
“The main challenge for the industry is to educate the consumer on the positive health benefits of dates,” according to Legawiec. Dates are 100 percent fat free and with 696 milligram of potassium per 100 gram date, they contain about twice as much potassium as 100 gram bananas. Dates also have a very high antioxidant content per volume. Demand has gone up in recent years, but it offers much more potential for growth.
For more information:
Eddie Legawiec
SunDate
Email: elegawiec@anthonyvineyards.com
www.sundateusa.com