Sagai Dates

Two-tone Najd semi-dry — graded by piece weight & count

Sagai is the signature date of the Najd, grown in the palm belts around Riyadh — Al-Aarid and Al-Kharj — and in Al-Qassim to the north. It is instantly recognisable, and that recognisability is the commercial point: a genuine Sagai carries a dry, golden-yellow tip over a soft, light-brown base — two textures on one fruit. The colour break is not cosmetic variation to be graded away; it is the variety's identity, and Gulf and South Asian buyers check for it the way a cashew buyer checks a W-count. A lot that arrives uniformly brown has either been heat-damaged in transit or is not Sagai. The fruit is semi-dry — typically 14–18% moisture — elongated, and moderately sweet with a clean, non-cloying finish. Saudi packers grade Sagai by piece weight into Superior (14 g and up, roughly 70 fruit per kilo), First (10 g minimum, 90–100 per kilo) and Second, with export houses overlaying Jumbo/Large/Medium count language for international buyers. Harvest runs mid-to-late season, with new-crop cartons shipping from roughly September. Export lots move against SGS or Intertek certification of moisture, count per kg, foreign matter, infestation and mould, with Halal and phytosanitary documentation as standard and fumigation certificates where the destination requires them.

Sagai is the date for buyers whose customers find soft varieties too sweet. Sukkari sells on sugar and Medjool on size; Sagai sells on the bite — a crisp, dry tip giving way to a soft base — and on restraint, which is why it holds the Saudi hospitality table alongside qahwa and a loyal festive-gifting market across the Gulf, India and Pakistan, where it trades as sagai or sugai khajoor. On price it sits squarely mid-premium: comfortably above Khudri and Khalas, in the same tier as Safawi and Sukkari, below Mabroom, and well below anything carrying the Ajwa name. Pay the Superior premium when the fruit will be seen — gift boxes, trays, tins; a First-grade count at 90–100 per kilo eats almost identically and is the right buy for repacking and mixed assortments. Two contracting notes. First, specify tip colour retention, not just count: the golden tip browns with heat and age, and it is the quality clock on this variety — a Sagai that has lost its two-tone has lost its premium. Second, buy unpitted for gifting; pitting collapses the tip and erases the visual identity you paid for. Semi-dry moisture makes Sagai ambient-stable for around twelve months in cool, dry storage, but we recommend reefer for summer Gulf loadings to protect colour. Container-load or LCL for gift-pack programmes, FOB Jeddah/Dammam, CFR or CIF.