This site is named after one date, Rotab Mozafati Bam. So a price guide here begins with the first word of that name. “Rotab” describes how ripe and how soft the fruit is, and that stage, together with the way the fruit has to be kept, explains a good part of why two date prices can’t always be compared head to head.
Rutab and tamr, the two words on a price list
Rutab, often spelt rotab, is the soft, fresh-ripe stage of a date. Tamr, or tamar, is the fully ripe, drier stage. One variety can turn up at either stage. Sukari from Al-Qassim in Saudi Arabia, a golden-amber and very sweet date, is sold soft as rutab and also drier. That means “Sukari” alone on a list doesn’t tell you which one you will receive.
Mazafati is the soft date in that name. It comes from Bam, in Kerman province, Iran. The fruit is dark, very soft and high in moisture. If you want the longer explanation of the rutab stage, there is a guide in Malay on ruthob and how it relates to Rotab Mozafati Bam.
A date that lives in the fridge
Mazafati needs refrigeration. It is cold-stored and sold year-round, so finding soft rotab on sale long after the harvest is ordinary and no reason for doubt. The practical point for a buyer is that the date has to stay cold through every handover before it reaches your kitchen.
So when you get a quote for Mazafati, ask two plain questions. How has the stock been stored? And how will it be packed and sent to you? A low price that leaves the dates warm in transit is not a saving. The article on dates and packaging looks at the box side of this.
Soft dates and semi-dry dates are separate purchases
The picture above shows Sayer. It is an Iranian date from Khuzestan, also traded as Stamaran, and it is amber-brown and semi-dry, a long way from Mazafati in the hand. Other dates sit on the drier side as well. Mariami is an Iranian date that is dark, semi-dry and chewy. Piarom, from Hormozgan rather than Bam, is dark and semi-dry with thin skin, and it is a separate variety from Mariami. Khudri from Saudi Arabia is brown, semi-dry and sold as an everyday, value date. Deglet Noor, which Malaysians know as kurma tangkai when it is sold on the stem, comes from Tunisia or Algeria.
When you hold a Mazafati price against one of these, you are setting a chilled, very soft fruit against a semi-dry one. Compare rotab with rotab and semi-dry with semi-dry.
Grades, quantities and the kilo price
A grade such as A, AA, AAA or Jumbo is the importer’s own size sorting and not an international standard. Use it to compare packs from the same seller. Across sellers, the steadier measure is the price per net kilo: take the price, divide it by the weight of dates inside (not the box), and add delivery.
Buying in bulk adds one more layer, because some suppliers set a minimum order. The post on minimum order quantities with date suppliers is worth reading before you ask for a wholesale quote. To see how one seller lays out a real list in ringgit, the Green Diamond Harga Kurma page shows each product with its variety, grade and pack weight, from 1kg Ajwa packs to 5kg Mariami packs.
When to order
Demand peaks before and during Ramadan. Hari Raya, weddings (hantaran), kenduri and umrah gifts bring the other rushes. Gulf and Middle-East dates are mostly harvested from late summer to autumn, roughly August to November, and new-season stock lands in Malaysia some weeks later. Cold storage keeps Mazafati available outside that window, but for a large order tied to a date on the calendar, book early and ask for the variety, grade and net weight in writing.
More on buying dates
For Ajwa, the pengedarkurma.com guide walks through purchasing date fruits for that variety in Malaysia. For organic stock, the wholesale post on this site can help you find your desired date fruit products.