ISLAMABAD (November 15 2009): The Competitiveness Support Fund (CSF), in collaboration with the Sindh Government under the Sindh Development Fund, has introduced three new varieties of Pakistani dates in the Turkish market. The fund is also exploring the Turkish packaging and processing system to identify possible markets for Pakistani dates and value-added date products, said CSF press release here on Saturday.

The Pakistani date varieties from Sindh were processed on Turkish equipment for extracting concentrate (juice) 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, it added.

It said that Pakistan was among the top five date producers in the world adding that currently some 250 thousand metric tonnes of dates were produced in Khairpur district in Sindh alone every year. Of these 85 percent are of the Aseel and Karbala variety.

Pakistan mainly exports fresh dates to Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the US and UK while dried dates are exported to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Canada, Denmark, Germany, India and Japan.

The three date varieties from Pakistan were introduced in Turkey during a recent visit by a delegation of date growers, processors and exporters from Sukkur and Khairpur. During their visit, which was arranged by CSF, the Pakistani delegation visited farms, factories and distributors from Izmir to Antalya. They were taken to date processing units that included cleaning, sorting, quality inspecting as well as shown various types of equipment and machinery.