Good year for dates, marketers say
Another good year should be on tap for the date industry following the 2019-20 season that was marked by a significant sales uptick resulting at least in part from COVID-19.
“We saw some of our biggest weeks in sales when the stay-at-home order happened,” said Garret Powell, sales and operations associate for Peter Rabbit Farms, Coachella, Calif.
Dates are not actually a dried fruit, Powell said, but they’re like a dried fruit.
Consumers found them to be a good item to pick up when they were cutting back on trips to the grocery store and looking for healthful snack options.
The sales boost in early spring lasted up to a month before movement returned to normal, he said.
Online sales also were strong at that time, he said.
Dates are harvested in late summer and early fall in California’s Coachella Valley, where 98% of U.S. date production is located, and they’re shipped out of storage year-round.
Powell expects a good crop when Peter Rabbit Farms starts its next harvest in September.
“We’ve had lots of sunshine, which is ideal for date palms,” he said.
The company’s volume should be similar to last year.
Date production has been on the rise, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
U.S. growers produced 43,450 tons in 2019, up from 28,990 in 2018.
Most date consumption is either fresh, through retail sales, or in manufactured items like energy bars, said Albert Keck, president of Hadley Date Gardens, Thermal, Calif.
The company will kick off its 2020 harvest in late August or early September with medjools, Keck said.
He anticipates “average to average light” volume.
“The crop is looking pretty decent,” he said in late June. “The dates are sizing up well. The weather has been beautiful.”
But working through the COVID-19 crisis with its various safety protocols has been a challenge, he said.
“We’ve been fortunate so far, but it sure is a burden operating under these conditions.”
David Baxter, brand manager for Bard Valley Date Growers Association, Bard, Calif., which markets medjool dates under the Natural Delights label, also is optimistic about the coming harvest.
“Everything looks great,” he said. “We haven’t had any negative issues.”
Yields in 2020 likely will be similar to last year, but he said it was too soon to know for sure.
Coachella-based Woodspur Farms LLC had a better-than-average year, said Tony Somohano, director of wholesale sales.
Online business “just absolutely caught on fire,” he said.
The company sells to a number of wholesalers who offer dates online, and Woodspur Farms has its own online store, Somohano said.
It’s hard to know whether the sales spike was COVID-19 related, tied in with the Muslim month-long observance of Ramadan or a combination of both, he said.
Somohano said he expects the new crop volume to surpass this year’s.
The company had to implement new protocols in harvesting and tweak the way workers did their jobs because of the coronavirus, he said.
“Everybody is doing what they need to do,” he said, including practicing social distancing and washing their hands at wash stations.
“We have to adjust to the times and the situation the pandemic has brought on us,” he said.
Woodspur Farms offers 16 kinds of dates and grows in the Coachella Valley, Blythe, Calif., and Yuma, Ariz.
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