Saudi Medjool Dates

AlUla & Al-Jouf Medjool by calibre and skin grade

Medjool is not native to Saudi Arabia — the cultivar came out of Morocco via California — but the Kingdom's northwest has become one of the fastest-growing Medjool origins in the trade. The commercial plantings sit in AlUla, in Al-Jouf around Sakaka, and in Tabuk, where high-altitude desert winters and very low humidity suit the variety, and where corporate-scale farms have brought thousands of hectares into bearing over the past decade. Harvest runs August to October. The grading language is the same one Jordan and California use, and buyers should insist on it: calibre first, defined in grams per piece — Jumbo at roughly 23 g and up (no more than 43 pieces per kg), Large at 18–23 g (44–56 per kg), Medium at 15–18 g (56–67 per kg) — then skin condition, expressed as a maximum percentage of skin separation, wrinkling and blemish per carton. Saudi Medjool is a soft date at roughly 18–24% moisture, which places it firmly in the cold-chain class: it is picked at tamar stage, cleaned, graded and moved into chilled storage at origin, and it should stay chilled or frozen until retail. Export lots ship against SGS or Intertek pre-shipment certification of calibre, moisture, skin tolerance, foreign matter and infestation, with phytosanitary, Halal and, on a growing share of AlUla fruit, organic documentation. Packing is the standard 5 kg bulk carton for repackers, with retail trays and gift formats packed at origin on request.

The commercial case for Saudi Medjool is landed cost. The orchards are young, yields are climbing, the state is pushing date exports hard, and growers price to win share from the established origins — on like-for-like Large and Medium calibre, Saudi fruit typically lands meaningfully below Jordan Valley and well below Californian. That makes it the right buy for price-led retail programmes, wholesale repacking and the Ramadan volume trade across South Asia, the Far East and the Gulf, where buyers ask for Medjool by name but shop the origin on price. Where the established origins still earn their premium is the very top of the spec: Jumbo and Super Jumbo presentation-box fruit with tight skin tolerances, where mature Jordan Valley palms and Californian handling still deliver a more consistent large calibre, and where European and North American retail programmes are slow to switch origin. Our advice is to sample against calibre and skin tolerance rather than origin reputation — a well-run AlUla Large at a Saudi price frequently beats a mid-grade Jordanian carton costing more. Within the Saudi export range Medjool prices in the premium tier alongside Anbara and Mabroom — well above Sukkari, Khalas and Khudri, though below Ajwa — so treat it as a considered purchase, not a volume filler. Ship reefer at 0–5 °C, or frozen at −18 °C for long-hold inventory; a broken cold chain shows up as lifted skin and surface sugaring, and with it goes the appearance premium you paid for. The standard contract unit is a 13–14 MT reefer container FOB Jeddah or a northwest port.