ISLAMABAD: The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF) in collaboration with the Sindh Government under the Sindh Development Fund (SDF) has introduced three new varieties of Pakistani dates in the Turkish market while also exploring the Turkish packaging and processing system to identify possible markets for Pakistani dates and value-added date products. The Pakistani date varieties from Sindh were processed on Turkish equipment. Date concentrate (juice) was extracted from the fruit. A detailed analysis of the concentrate would be carried out in order to explore the possibility of making value added products like vinegar from Sindhi dates. Pakistan was among the top five date producers in the world. Currently some 250 thousand metric tonnes of dates were produced in Khairpur district in Sindh alone every year. Of these 85 percent were of the Aseel and Karbala variety. staff report