The fresh Barhi date is harvested over a short period, from the end of July until October. For a few days now, this oval date, more and more popular on the European market, is available again at Armand Fabre. “The harvest started a couple of weeks ago. The Barhi dates arrive in Marseille by boat and in Roissy by plane. We market the Barhi date at about 16 to 20 kg, with 100 packages of 5 kg per pallet. They keep for a few weeks at a storage temperature of 4-5°,” explains Hélène Fabre, of the company Armand Fabre.
“The date first has a yellow color, with a more ‘crunchy’ texture and a taste that is both sweet and bitter. Then, it turns brown as it ripens, with a ‘creamier’ texture similar to chestnut cream. The peculiarity of this date is that it can be consumed at three different stages of maturity: the ‘crunchy’ first stage, the ‘crunchy but sweeter’ second stage, and the ‘creamy’ third stage.”
“The Barhi date didn’t use to be developed in Europe. But today, interest in the product has intensified, markets are developing and new countries are slowly starting to export. Jordan, Egypt, Israel and Palestine have been the precursors on the market, but soon there will be Peru and other origins.”
Depending on the season, Armand Fabre also offers the Palestine origin, and will receive a container from Egypt this year for the first time.
About Armand Fabre
Armand Fabre has been an import-export company for three generations. “My grandfather created this company, and we still work with the same producers, who are the grandchildren of the producers my grandfather was working with. We are historically specialized in niche products from Tunisia and Corsica, in which we have great expertise. Over time, we have also been developing more and more products from Jordan,” explains Hélène. “We have been specialists in some products like the dry date, as well as the fresh date for a few years now. We were one of the first structures to develop the Barhi date. We also specialize in maltaise oranges from Tunisia and clementines from Corsica. In addition to our three flagship products, we also offer all the products found in Tunisia and Corsica, in smaller volumes.”
For more information:
Hélène Fabre
Armand Fabre
Phone: + 33 (0)4 42 43 43 90
armand.f.fabre@orange.fr