gebana procures the dates directly from the farmers. The sale is carried out “par pied” i.e. per tree. This guarantees an income for the farmer regardless of the actual yield.
The dates are left on their stems and transported to Kebili. Here they are sorted for quality, washed and dried briefly in a hygienic environment. Depending on customer preference, the dates are then pitted or simply weighed and packed as clusters. The manual labour involved in the process provides a much needed extra income for around 100 workers. Once processed, the boxes of dates are loaded into export containers in Kebili and travel on a container ship via Tunis to Europe.
The final quality control of the dates is carried out by the Tunisian government, which has set exacting quality criteria for exported dates. In 2007, an HACCP system was introduced that will ensure that quality assurance standards for the export market exceed Tunisian government guidelines. |
