3.2.2 Livestock feeding use
In addition to human consumption, date pits and dates falling down from palms
before maturity are used as animal feed.Domestic marketing of dates
is free of direct government involvement and is sole responsibility of the private
sector and to a lesser extent of the producers.3.2.3 Domestic market and structure
In the majority of GCC countries, date products' marketing is dominated by
local marketing process since export marketing, with the exception of UAE and
KSA, is still a small percentage of local production.At the domestic
market, date marketing is passing through two avenues:
o Direct traditional marketing to consumers: Where the producers sell their
dates after harvesting directly to the local markets localized in the production areas and the neighboring markets without any further processing.The
dates are commercialized without proceeding to any process, such as sorting,
grading, steaming, and washing.