Fujairah fruit production up 22% to reach 42,061 tonnes

Fujairah / WAM

Fruit production in the Emirate of Fujairah rose to 42,061 tonnes in 2017, compared to 34,408 tonnes in 2016, a rise of 22 percent, according to the 2017 edition of the yearbook of the Fujairah Statistics Centre.
The total value of fruit crops rose from AED 238.1 million to AED 289.98 million, an increase of 21.8 per cent, with the area under cultivation rising from 21,335 dunams to 25,533 dunams, or 19.7 per cent.
The emirate’s agricultural sector is dominated by date-palm cultivation, with dates accounting for AED260.8 million of the crop value, or 89.9 per cent of the total.
The second most-important fruit crop was mangoes, worth a total of AED 13.4 million, or 4.6 per cent of the total, followed by jujube, lime and other fruits, the yearbook said.
Field crops, including Rhodes grass and alfalfa, for animal feed, were worth AED 45.7 million in 2017, down by 7.4 per cent from the 20916 total of AED 49.35, with a corresponding decline in tonnage from 32,256 tonnes to 29,945 tonnes. The area under cultivation also declined, from 3,464 dunams to 3.220 dunams. Rhodes grass, at a value of AED 24.5 million, and alfalfa, at AED11.2 million, last year accounted for 53.5 per cent and 24.5 per cent of crop value respectively.
Tobacco, once a popular crop in Fujairah’s mountain farms, is no longer grown for commercial purposes, following the introduction of the federal anti-tobacco law in 2014.