The California date industry is booming and production is expected to continue to increase for the foreseeable future as many new date palms have been planted in recent years.

“We are increasing our volume significantly,” said D.J. Ryan, sales and operations manager of SunDate LLC, headquartered in Coachella, CA. SunDate is a partnership between the date growing operations of Anthony Vineyards and Chuchian Ranch. Ryan said both organizations have increased their plantings in recent years and those plantings are beginning to bear fruit.  Consequently, production should continue to increase over the next several years.

Ben Antongiovanni, sales manager of Atlas Produce & Distribution Inc., in Bakersfield, CA, said his firm’s production will be up about 20 percent this year, and noted that was fairly representative of the major players in the industry.

Earlier this year, Albert Keck II, president of Hadley Date Gardens in Thermal, CA, explained that the date industry was in a bit of a revival. He revealed that during the housing boom in the 1990s and 2000s, the date palm tree became a favorite landscape feature for upscale homeowners. Consequently many acres of commercial date trees were sold for the trees themselves. That led to a strong market for dates and re-investment in plantings over the past decade. Right now the industry is thriving with the new trees bearing more fruit every year.

“We expect our volume to double over the next decade,” Keck said.

Lorrie Cooper, manager of the California Date Commission, said the last 15 years has shown a steady increase of date production as the newer palms produce more fruit each season. “This season’s date production is estimated to exceed 50 million pounds,” she said.

Just how much more than 50 million pounds will determine the percentage of increase this season. Cooper revealed that bearing acreage over the current five-year period (2011-15) has averaged 7,700 acres, while date production volume for that time frame averaged 47.5 million pounds.

“Compared to the data covering the 2006–10 crop periods, the acreage remained constant and the production volume increased approximately 13 percent,” Cooper said.

Dates are typically picked in September and October from California’s desert regions. Coachella Valley is the main production area, though dates are also grown in the desert region of Bard Valley, which straddles the California-Arizona border, and there is some production near Las Vegas as well.

Dates are grown on a date palm tree that typically grows about 20 feet up.  It is a labor-intensive crop that requires much more care than your average tree fruit. Antongiovanni said workers have to be at eye-level with the date bunches seven different times in a five month period. From artificial pollination to harvest, in the west the workers are typically raised to the top of the tree in some type of mechanical contraption.  In days gone by — and no doubt still in other countries — workers scaled the trees and performed various tasks while hanging from the top of the tree in some type of harness.

This year’s crop came off a bit early as both SunDate and Atlas reported beginning harvest in late August.  The early start should help total volume as it should give workers a better chance of harvesting the fruit without rain interference. Ryan said the fruit, which is covered in a mesh or paper cone while it is growing, is somewhat protected from the elements and can easily survive some rain.  Monsoonal rain, which does occasionally hit California, is the enemy of a good harvest. Three weeks into the harvest this year, no rain was in sight and production was right on schedule.

There are basically two date varieties grown in California, the plumper Medjool date and the Deglet Noor, which is often sold in a dried fashion for food processing and cooking. The Medjool is the more common variety sold at retail.

Dates are sold from cold storage or the freezer throughout the year as they have an extended shelf life. Ryan said demand has been increasing and creating a year-round market, but he said holiday sales do drive the category. A strong demand for dates surfaces during the fall holidays — Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah — and also during Easter and Passover in the spring. There is also a very big demand during the monthlong Muslim Ramadan celebration. Ramadan is a lunar calendar holiday that moves 10-14 days earlier each year. It began in mid-June in 2015 and will have a start date of early June in 2016.

Antongiovanni said there is a spot market for dates that reflect seasonal demand but many customers buy on a year-round contract with a locked in price.  

According to Cooper, the California Date Commission’s focus is on nutrition research for the benefit of our growers.

“As research is presently ongoing, we can say ‘abstracts’ on our research will be available late fourth quarter 2015, early 2016.”

Cooper said in promoting dates, its healthy benefits and use as a substitute for refined processed sugars are its strongest attributes.