Lakhasly

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.

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. There is some use for feed of final product
in some countries. This practice is not only observed in GCC countries but is also
frequent in other North African countries, such as Tunisia. Some portion of date
production is date wasted. Recent statistics from FAO (several years) indicates that
up to 38% of the date production was fed to animals in UAE during 2013. For Oman,
this figure is around 4%. The volume of wasted dates is also important in the study
countries. The lowest wasted percentage (of production) is recorded in KSA (1%),
while a highest rate of 13% is recorded in Kuwait.
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. 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. It takes many forms. At the domestic
market, date marketing is passing through two avenues:
• 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. The dates are marketed under two stages
according to the maturity of the fruit: The stage of secret and wet (fresh) and
the final matured fruit.
• Marketing to the date palm factories: In general, the dates delivered to the
factories are of the best quality as the date palm producers deliver their
products to the local existing factories under pre-fixed norms and standards
fixed by the factory. The price is fixed on the basis of quality of the fruits and
the supplied quantities.