ISLAMABAD: 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 while exploring Turkish packaging and processing system to identify possible markets for dates and value-added date products, said a press release issued by the CSF on Saturday.

Date varieties from Sindh were processed with Turkish equipment.  A detailed analysis will be carried out in order to explore the possibility of making value-added products like vinegar from Sindh dates.

Pakistan is among top five date producers in the world. Currently, some 250,000 tonnes of dates are produced in the Khairpur district alone every year.

Of these, 85 per cent are of Aseel and Karbala varieties. 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. 

The visit was arranged by the CSF. During their visit 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.