The central date market in Medina is witnessing economic activity, coinciding with the “rutab” harvest season, which begins in June of each year, through 29,000 palm farms in the region. The date market in the region is distinguished by the multiplicity of types of dates on offer, for which Medina and its governorates are famous. Among them are: Al-Ruthana, Al-Rabia, Al-Hilya, Al-Suwayda, Al-Hilwa, Lona Musaed, and other different types of dates. High temperatures contribute to influencing the speed of date maturation as a first stage in the harvesting process.
Which continues until the end of July, then the process of harvesting dates begins, which continues until the end of August, so that farmers begin to display their dates in the market, the most famous of which are: Ajwa dates, Safawi, Anbar, Majdool, Berni, and other types of dates. The city area is Al-Munawwarah is one of the areas famous for palm cultivation, and farmers work to protect their crops from birds because of their attacks on the palm stems, “Al-Qanniyah” and its singular form is “Al-Qanniyah,” which forces some of them to devise various means to repel these attacks and mitigate the hot rays of the sun to preserve the fruits from falling and becoming contaminated.
One of the methods of preserving the fruits is the process of “sleeving” or “sleeving”, which is used to preserve palm crops. The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cooperative Society for Dates in Medina, Abdullah Al-Raddadi, explained that the idea of covering palm fruits with sleeves or sleeving has been known since ancient times to the farmers of Medina, and it is a method Safe covering of dates and dates in some varieties, such as: Ajwa, Safawi, Anbara, Majdool, and Sagai, until they fully mature and become dates. Previously, “burlap” bags were used, but now some companies have produced mesh plastic covers of different colors depending on the type of fruit.
As for the Safawi and Ajwa dates, the green color is preferred to increase the percentage of shade on them so that the color of the fruit becomes darker. As for the amber and Sagai dates, the transparent white color is preferred. Because it does not need to increase the shade to keep the color of the fruit light, which is the desired color for marketing.