Mechanized Harvesting of Dates Fruit

Although many date farms still use ladders, some farmers use a U-Shaped basket on a forklift to reach the fresh dates. They will be able to utilize this method until the trees are approx. 40 ft. tall. Dates fruit harvest forklift will be parked at the base of the tree so that the tree trunk is positioned between the forks. The basket will then be lifted to an appropriate height so the fresh dates can be easily harvested. As the basket is being lifted into the tree, the pickers are holding plastic trays that will be suspended from a branch so that they will hang underneath the date bunch while they harvest the dates. Date harvest once the trays are in place the pickers will untie the bottom of the bags covering the dates and shake out any dates that have already ripened and fallen off the strands.

Once the tray is full, it will be lowered down and an empty tray will be sent back up. The full trays will be emptied into a larger screened tray, and then taken to the processing area for sorting.

Dates Fruit Sorting

The dates are brought in from the grove in either these large wooden screen trays or else in smaller black plastic trays. Most of the dates fruit that come in from the grove are already ripe, but occasionally we get some that are still yellow. These yellow fresh dates have to be left out in the heat (not the sun) to finish ripening. The dates that have to be left in the heat to ripen have to be sorted individually as each date will ripen at its own pace.

The dates are then emptied from the trays onto a shaker table that rocks gently back and forth. The table is covered in wet terry cloth towels. As the dates roll very slowly down the table, they are cleaned by the wet towels. (Of course, the towels are changed frequently throughout the day). The dates then roll onto a conveyor belt where they will be sorted by size and quality. From there the dates are then packed and moved into cold storage until they are sold.

Traditional Harvesting of Dates Fruit

In most parts of Iran, farmers harvest dates fruit in the traditional method, a worker who can climb the palm climbs the tree and shakes the palm bunch, similar to shaking a mulberry tree. The fresh dates pour into the large cloth that a few workers are holding at the bottom of the tree. (The dates fruit season is from early August through early October in Iran.)

Falling from a height of about six to ten meters will crush and tear the dates. It reduces the amount of top-notch crop.

High costs are imposed on farmers each year for pollination, closing date bunches and harvesting.

In addition to the financial costs, traditional harvesting of dates has caused physical losses to farmers; because some date trees are more than 20 meters high.

In the mechanized method, these lesions were reduced by 80%. On the other hand, it increases the rate of harvesting and pollination of dates.