The Date Room has a production capacity of 200 tonnes of dates a year, which are grown at about 15 family-owned farms in Al Ain and the Northern Emirates. It also has two outlets, in Yas Mall and Deira City Centre, and “there are plans for more”, says executive director Tony Al Saiegh. He notes that up to 20 per cent of sales happen online, and that 50 per cent of these are gift-wrapped for occasions such as births, marriages and other celebrations. “Dates,” Al Saiegh says, “last so much longer than flowers.”
The brand also emphasises its tree-to-table ethos, and invited us to one of its Al Ain farms to see how this small fruit begins its journey. To produce dates for commercial purposes, the palm trees are pollinated manually – no small feat given that the trees can grow to a height of more than 20 metres. Farmworkers make rope harnesses, which are simultaneously hitched around the waist and the tree, gripping the trunk as the workers climb to the leafy fronds to reach the flowers.
Date palms are unique in that they are either male or female; the female trees produce the fruit. Because they have to be hand-pollinated, the farmers embark on a horticultural envoy and sling a cloth bag over their shoulder, with pollen from the male trees. At the top of the palm, the male flowers are hand-tied among the female flowers. Flowering and pollination take place between February and April, with the majority of the harvest occurring in August and September.
For more information about Emirati Dates please visit our website: https://thedateroom.com/
