*3.3.2 Example of Oman marketing channel for dates*

In Oman, the marketing channels for dates include on-farm selling, retailers, local markets, date factories, and export. There are therefore mainly three channels through which date flow from the farm to local and foreign consumers/export market:


## **3.4 Exports market channels**

The trade matrix of dates for the GCC countries is represented through a list of exported quantities from each of these countries to different destinations in the world. However, due to the high number of destinations, **Table 1** summarized only


*Source: UN COMTRADE data base; (na: not available). Number of countries shows the number of countries to which each of the respective GCC countries is exporting dates; Exported quantities are expressed in tons; value of export is expressed in 1000 US\$.*

#### **Table 1.**

*Number of dates exporting markets for each of the GCC countries.*

*Agricultural Economics - Current Issues*

while a highest rate of 13% is recorded in Kuwait.

market, date marketing is passing through two avenues:

*3.2.3 Domestic market and structure*

the final matured fruit.

the supplied quantities.

**3.3 Marketing channels of dates**

In addition to human consumption, date pits and dates falling down from palms before maturity are used as animal feed. There is some use for feed of final product in some countries. This practice is not only observed in GCC countries but is also frequent in other North African countries, such as Tunisia. Some portion of date production is date wasted. Recent statistics from FAO (several years) indicates that up to 38% of the date production was fed to animals in UAE during 2013. For Oman, this figure is around 4%. The volume of wasted dates is also important in the study countries. The lowest wasted percentage (of production) is recorded in KSA (1%),

In the majority of GCC countries, date products' marketing is dominated by local marketing process since export marketing, with the exception of UAE and KSA, is still a small percentage of local production. Domestic marketing of dates is free of direct government involvement and is sole responsibility of the private sector and to a lesser extent of the producers. It takes many forms. At the domestic

• Direct traditional marketing to consumers: Where the producers sell their dates after harvesting directly to the local markets localized in the production areas and the neighboring markets without any further processing. The dates are commercialized without proceeding to any process, such as sorting, grading, steaming, and washing. The dates are marketed under two stages according to the maturity of the fruit: The stage of secret and wet (fresh) and

• Marketing to the date palm factories: In general, the dates delivered to the factories are of the best quality as the date palm producers deliver their products to the local existing factories under pre-fixed norms and standards fixed by the factory. The price is fixed on the basis of quality of the fruits and

Food marketing, according to Kohls and Uhl [4], is "the performance of all business activities involved in the flow of food products and services from the point of production until they are in the hands of consumers." For dates, these activities include harvesting, processing, packaging, and transportation/shipment to local or export markets. A marketing channel describes the movement of a product or commodity from the site of production to the place of consumption. It may include transportation, handling and storage, ownership transfers, processing, and distribution. The marketing channel for dates includes initial processing at farm level after harvest, transport to the local market directly (especially for the highly perishable fruits) or to the packing plant, processing and packaging at factory level and transport to the final consumers. There are no universal set of marketing channels because each country is unique, and institutions involved operate differently under different sets of regulations. Therefore, in the GCC countries, the differences in the marketing channels are minima's, and include on-farm selling, retailers, local markets, date factories, and consumers

*3.2.2 Livestock feeding use*

**14**

markets.

the number of countries to which each of the respective GCC countries are exporting to. Results outlined in **Table 1** reveals that KSA and UAE are the most active in terms of market diversification expressed by the number of countries to which they are exporting dates. In 2016, UAE was exporting to 110 countries, while Saudi Arabia was exporting to 64 countries.

The analysis of the intensity of date imports-exports, particularly among the GCC countries (**Figure 1**) based on the availability of recent data, shows again that KSA and UAE are the most active in terms of date exports to the different GCC countries. On the GCC market, UAE is mostly exporting to Oman, followed by KSA and Qatar. KSA is mostly exporting to UAE followed by Kuwait and Qatar. Most of the Omani dates is also exported in the destination of UAE, which is showing that UAE is the biggest exporter and importer partner of Oman.

In the export channel, dates are sold directly to the processing factories for processing and packaging before being shipped to export markets. It is indicated that this channel is taking a considerable share in some countries, such as KSA and UAE, in comparison to the rest of GCC countries. The dates are produced, harvested, sorted, graded, processed, packaged, and transported in an efficient, safe, and with high quality management. This process determines the final market value of the dates, as shown in **Figure 2**.

#### **Figure 1.**

*Export trade of dates among the GCC countries (UAE: United Arab Emirates, SAU: Saudi Arabia; OMN: Oman; and KWT: Kuwait). Source: Own elaboration from COMATRADE UN database [5].*

#### **Figure 2.**

*Omani date marketing channels with date export supply chain indicated by circle. Source: Mbaga [6].*

**17**

**Figure 4.**

**Figure 3.**

*Date Palm Value Chain Analysis and Marketing Opportunities for the Gulf Cooperation…*

**4. International date palm markets and opportunities for GCC countries**

The GCC is considered as an important component of the regional and international date trading; the trend of the international marketing of dates shows clearly the weight of the quantity of date exported by GCC countries in the international market [3]. The fluctuation of the trend of the dates trading in the GCC countries is mainly due to the instability of volumes exported by the UAE and KSA. The analysis of date trade reveals that in 2016, GCC and North African countries are capturing more than 70% of the international market of dates from the Arab countries. **Figure 3** shows how this market is shared among the GCC countries and their direct competitors from North Africa, such as Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt. In addition to Israel, who constantly holds more than 10% of the international market of dates, Tunisia is dominating in terms of market share, with an average value of around 20% over the last decade. Algeria and Egypt are simultaneously holding around 3.6

As shown in **Figure 4**, the international market share of GCC countries in 2016 was about 28.26%. In terms of growth, it was clear that all GCC countries, including the least present on the international market are progressing quite positively with increasing shares from 1 year to another Such result confirm that these countries

*Market share of selected dates exporting countries, including GCC countries and their competitors during the* 

*Trend of the aggregated GCC market share (sum of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates) during the period 2005–2016. Source: Own elaboration from FAOSTAT (2018).*

*period 2005–2016. Source: Own elaboration from FAOSTAT (2018).*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82450*

and 3.8% of the market.

*Date Palm Value Chain Analysis and Marketing Opportunities for the Gulf Cooperation… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.82450*
