Bahrain to get its first Dates Factory

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The wait is finally over. Bahrain, once known as the “land of million palm trees”, is set to give its datepalm sector a new boost amid the global race towards food security.

This includes constructing Bahrain’s first Date Factory for which the Ministry of Works has launched a new tender after a similar move in 2021.

The move gains importance as countries expand their domestic food production to achieve food independence.

However, experts point out that a critical part of the solution lies in growing more climate-resilient crops including dates.

The 2021 ten - der was for building a BD300,000 (USD 797,872) date factory in Hawrat A’ali that could process 5,000 tonnes of dates annually, eventually increasing to 15,000 tonnes, when fully operational.

The new tender also plans the project in Howrat A’ali.

According to the tender description, the upcoming factory will have a main factory building, areas of unloading, storage, dates packaging, laboratory, offices and supporting facilities.

The tender is offering a 12-month contract for the project.

The project comes as Bahrain bids to join the Saudi Arabia-based International Dates Council to help develop more sustainable farming techniques and increase productivity.

The council currently has 12 members.

The new dates factory project is part of Bahrain’s strategic project for food security.

The project also comes as demand for dates has seen a drastic rise amid the pandemic and increased awareness and search for healthier sugar alternatives.

Bahrain reportedly produced 13,000 tonnes of dates in 2019 from about 2,490.00 hectares.

Historically, the production of dates in Bahrain reached an all-time high of 38,242 tonnes in 1977 and an all-time low of 5,712 tonnes in 1990.

To bring that into perspective, know that, in 2017, date production was 7,54,761 tonnes in Saudi Arabia, 15,90,414 tonnes in Egypt and 4,75,286 tonnes in UAE.

However, over the last decades, the number of date palms in the Kingdom has decreased from 892,000 to 534,000.

The island currently has over 100 date palm cultivars, which produces at least 23 varieties.

It is worth knowing that the Middle East date market, according to Univdatos, is expected to reach US$ 9.1 billion by 2025.

UAEbased Al Barakah Dates has earlier announced plans to expand its facility in the Dubai Industrial City to be able to process 100,000 tons of date and date products annually.

This is equivalent to almost half the UAE’s entire domestic harvest.

Tender closes in December Those interested in taking up the job should purchase the tender before the 1st of December 2022.

The closing date is the 7th of December 2022. Make bids with a BD4,000 bond.

The tender fee is BD100.