UAE date palms expand across China as cultivation advances

The date palm harvest season has concluded in Wenchang City in south China's island province of Hainan, Yuanjiang County in Yunnan Province and Panzhihua City in Sichuan Province, marking the first time UAE date palms have borne fruit in notable quantities in China's inland regions after first producing fruit in Wenchang in 2025.

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, date palm varieties from the UAE are gradually spreading across areas of China suitable for their cultivation. Eight date palm varieties produced fruit again at the Wenchang base, while 52 palms at the Yuanjiang base and 125 palms at the Panzhihua base bore fruit for the first time.

In 2019, the UAE announced the donation of 100,000 date palm seedlings to support the development of date palm cultivation in China. The UAE delivered the first batch of 1,500 seedlings to China in 2021, achieving a survival rate of around 93 percent. This was followed by a second batch of 23,500 date palm seedlings as part of efforts to strengthen agricultural cooperation and exchange scientific and technical expertise, supporting food security and economic development in both countries and contributing to the diversification of agricultural crops in China.

The Xinhua report said UAE date palms have gradually spread from Wenchang to other parts of Hainan, while cultivation trials have expanded to inland areas with suitable climatic conditions, including dry-hot valleys in Chinese provinces such as Yunnan and Sichuan.

In Yuanjiang County, Yunnan Province, a two-hectare experimental date palm cultivation base was established in October 2024 and planted with nine varieties of date palm seedlings donated by the UAE. This year, 52 palms from eight varieties bore fruit for the first time, providing new experience in cultivating date palms in China's dry-hot valleys.

In Panzhihua City, Sichuan Province, a China-UAE experimental date palm cultivation base was established in June 2025. The base has 942 palms from nine varieties across an area of more than four hectares. In July, 125 palms bore fruit just one year after being planted.

WAM