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石油に続くイラクの特産、ナツメヤシが戦争などで半減 「ＡＦＰ］
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=6817#
Iraqi date industry suffers from war, pollution and neglect
Number of palm trees in country has fallen by more than half in 40 years
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Monday, August 02, 2004
BAGHDAD: Iraq's once world-famous date industry, bludgeoned by war and lack of funds, may have suffered on the global market, but stallholders in Baghdad are stocking up once more with the season's first crop.
"The first dates have arrived at the central Al-Rashid market from Basra" in the south, said wholesaler Abdel Amir Abu Alla, 47, sitting in his little office decorated with pictures of Shiite Islam's Imam Ali.
To prove the quality of his wares, he munches on a dozen ripe dates, washed down with a yogurt drink, the traditional companion to the luscious fruit.
Tasty they may be, but Abu Alla is not happy.
"This year, the quality of the dates has suffered because of the consequences of war, sand storms, pollution and a lack of pesticides.
"Before the war, planes used to spray the palm trees with insecticides. That doesn't happen any more. For three years, we have done nothing and the quality has suffered," he said.
"If we want to return to our date tradition, we must let the cultivators know via the media and give them the means to treat their trees," he added, dressed in a simple tunic with a chequered headscarf wrapped round his head.
Despite flagging quality and falling prices, he still hopes to export the "best date in the world" - the barhi - to other countries in the Gulf. Last year, Abu Alla managed to ship 3,200 tons to Dubai.
The Barhi is the country's most prized and most expensive date, which is largely grown in the extreme south in Al-Faw, near the Iranian border.
Iraq's string of wars in the last 20 years, the Iran-Iraq conflict, the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 US-led invasion, not to mention pollution, has blighted date trees, a symbol of Iraq, the agriculture ministry said.
What was once "the country of millions of palm trees" has seen the number of its trees fall from 33 million in 1958 to 13 million today.
After oil, dates were once the country's second largest exports. They were smuggled - like oil products - by wooden boats down the Gulf in defiance of UN sanctions during the last 13 years of Saddam Hussein's rule.
In the region around Basra, some 5 million palm trees were destroyed by war and Saddam's decision to drain the southern marshes near the Iranian border as part of his policy of repressing the country's Shiite Muslim majority, ministry experts said.
Abu Alla can reel off the names of 50 varieties by heart, out of hundreds in Iraq, and talks about the delights of the fruit, harvested from July to December, eaten fresh or dried.
Demand for dates explodes in the Muslim dawn-to-dusk fasting month of Ramadan when the fruit is an overture to the first meal of the day, iftar, at sunset.
Senior officials in the former Iraqi regime, including Saddam's elder son Uday, who chaired a date exporting company, lined their pockets with the industry's takings, said Abu Alla.
Another market stallholder, Abu Salam, claims that Iraqi dates have hidden secrets, notably for his male customers. "They're the Viagra of the Arabs," he said, chuckling.
In an effort to kick-start the industry, a $400 million project to plant 160,000 trees over eight years began in April, financed by the Iraqi interim administration and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
By Patrick Kamenka, Agence France Presse
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