Shafaq News- Diyala

More than 130 date varieties went on display on Monday in Baquba, the provincial capital of Iraq’s Diyala, during the province’s first specialized date festival in years, promoting a crop expected to reach about 150,000 tons this season.

The festival featured varieties including Barhi, Maktoum, Ajwa Al-Madina, and local types such as Qaranfali. Mohammed Al-Mandalawi, spokesperson for Diyala’s Agriculture Directorate, told Shafaq News that the festival offered an opportunity to highlight the diversity and quality of the province’s dates and introduce citizens and traders to varieties produced in its orchards.

Supporting palm cultivation requires agricultural supplies and pest control, not simply increasing the number of trees, Al-Mandalawi said, adding that Diyala has good soil and produces rare date varieties, particularly Qaranfali in Mandali.

Holding the event again after a years-long interruption gave farmers an opportunity to display their produce and introduce the public to the quality and diversity of Diyala dates, festival attendee Ayman Al-Tamimi said, although growers still face high costs for agricultural services, pest control, and harvesting, along with weak marketing and lower prices during the peak season.

Kalala Zangana, a Kurdish attendee from Khanaqin, told Shafaq News the festival brought together Diyala’s different communities and ethnic groups and showed that date palms and their fruit form part of the province’s shared identity.

Diyala’s date production is expected to reach about 150,000 tons in 2026, compared with about 130,000 tons last season, according to the Agriculture Directorate. More than 60,000 new palm offshoots have been planted this season, and the province has more than 2 million palm trees. The province alone exports thousands of tons of dates annually, particularly to countries in South and East Asia, as well as Arab countries.

Nationally, Iraq’s Agriculture Ministry said on May 9 that the country exported more than 600,000 tons of dates in 2025, along with more than 100,000 tons of date paste. Iraq has more than 22 million date palms and produces more than 600 local date varieties, according to the ministry.

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