Jordan’s Agriculture Minister Saeb Khreisat described the date sector as an agricultural and economic activity at the September 30 Jordanian Dates Harvest Day and called for continued work on quality, marketing, processing and access to new markets. The Jordan News Agency Petra reported that the Jordan Dates Association held the event for the fifth time. The remarks describe sector aspirations and challenges; they do not announce a new government subsidy, export agreement or production target. The production and employment figures are presented as information supplied by the association’s president at the event, not as a published government statistical series.

Association president Anwar Haddad said date plantations cover more than 50,000 dunums, contain over 800,000 palm trees and produce more than 37,000 tonnes annually. He said Medjool and Barhi are the leading varieties. In the same remarks, he put exports above 60 million Jordanian dinars, said they reach more than 50 markets and estimated that the sector has created about 12,000 jobs. Petra’s report does not specify the calendar year or measurement method behind these figures. They should be attributed as sector-scale information from the association representative, rather than treated as audited official accounts or a national statistic defining all agricultural employment.

The priorities highlighted are product quality, processing capacity and access to foreign markets. The association said it aims to improve water-use efficiency, adopt technology and artificial intelligence, expand food processing and open new markets. These priorities concern different steps between harvest and export value. Processing and packaging can help prepare raw products for longer storage or market requirements, but the source gives no measured result for existing capacity, technology investment or productivity gains. The proposals should therefore be read as priorities expressed by sector representatives, not as proof that a transformation has already occurred or that stated targets have been achieved.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s representative in Jordan said FAO would continue to support the sector through technical assistance and capacity building. The report also says FAO will back national efforts against red palm weevil and value-chain development through its One Country One Priority Product initiative. The Jordan Valley Authority said it would continue assisting farmers and improving water and irrigation management. Petra does not state the funding amount, timeline, number of farmers covered or expected crop volume for this support. Announced technical cooperation should not be confused with a funded programme whose budget and measurable targets have been published.

Speaking for palm farmers, Mohammad Abu Ayyash cited weak infrastructure, high production costs, marketing difficulties and foreign competition as challenges. He called for registration of Jordanian dates as a geographical indication and stronger pest-control programmes. Those comments underline why annual output and export value alone do not show farm income or competitiveness: production costs, quality, water management, storage, transport and market access also matter. The source provides no numerical comparisons for those factors. Evidence to watch includes the registration process, pest-control activity, water-use data and published foreign-trade statistics that can show how the sector develops.