Two shops can put the same box of Ajwa on the shelf at two different prices, and both can be fair. A date price is built up in layers: which variety it is, where it came from, how the importer sorted it, how it was packed, and who you are buying it from. If you are buying to resell as a pengedar, or simply buying for the house, each layer is something you can check. This guide takes them one at a time.
Every date here starts as an import
Malaysia has no commercial date-growing trade. Every date sold in Malaysia is imported, so there is no cheaper local crop to measure an imported price against. What you are really comparing is one import with another.
That is why the variety and its origin come first. Ajwa comes from Madinah in Saudi Arabia and is small, roundish and near-black, with soft, finely wrinkled skin. Medjool originated in Morocco, and the stock Green Diamond carries is from Palestine and the Jordan Valley. It is large, very soft and tastes of caramel. Deglet Noor, sold here as kurma tangkai when it comes on the stem, is from Tunisia or Algeria and is golden and semi-dry. Khudri, from Saudi Arabia, is brown and semi-dry and is usually bought as an everyday, value date. A price only means something once you know which of these you are looking at.
The photo above is Sayer, an Iranian date from Khuzestan that is also traded as Stamaran. It is amber-brown and semi-dry. Sayer is not the same variety as Shahani, so a list that treats the two as one is worth questioning.
Grade letters belong to the seller
After the variety comes the grade. Letters such as A, AA, AAA and Jumbo are each importer's own size sorting. There is no international standard behind them, so an AA from one supplier and an AA from another may not match.
Look at a single seller's ladder to see how it works. On the Green Diamond Harga Kurma page, Ajwa is listed in one-kilo packs as A, AA and AAA VIP (Large), each with its own ringgit price. Within that one list, the step from A to AAA tells you something. Set that seller's AA next to a different shop's AA, though, and you learn very little. The pengedarkurma.com.my post on the grading tiers Malaysian sellers use goes further into how to compare sellers fairly.
Who you buy from
Before you compare two quotes, ask each seller whether they import the stock themselves or buy it from another supplier, and compare quotes from the same kind of seller.
For a reseller, the number on the list is only half the question. You also need to know whether the supplier actually imports, what paperwork comes with the stock, and how much you should hold in your first month. Those are covered, in Malay, in what to check on a supplier before you become a pengedar.
Pack size and the per-kilo figure
Bulk and retail packs are priced differently. Green Diamond, for example, lists Mariami AA in a 5kg pack and Ajwa in 1kg packs. To compare them, divide each price by the net kilos of dates inside, not counting the box, and add any delivery charge. A gift box, a tray or a ribbon adds no fruit, so check the net weight of dates before you compare. That is fine when you want a gift, but do the sum first.
Texture matters to the comparison too. Mazafati from Bam, in Iran's Kerman province, is very soft, high in moisture and needs refrigeration, so ask how it has been stored and how it will travel. It is cold-stored and sold all year, which is normal for this date. Mariami, also from Iran, is semi-dry and chewy. Their prices shouldn't be lined up as though they were the same kind of product.
Timing your order
Demand peaks before and during Ramadan. Hari Raya, weddings (hantaran), kenduri and umrah gifts are the other busy periods. Gulf and Middle-East dates are mostly harvested from late summer to autumn, roughly August to November, and new-season stock reaches Malaysia some weeks after that. If you are stocking up to resell, place your order well before the rush and get the variety, grade and net weight confirmed in writing. The post on why order books fill up months before Ramadan explains the pattern.
Further reading
For Ajwa in particular, pengedarkurma.com has a guide to purchasing date fruits of that variety in Malaysia. If organic stock is what you are after, the organic wholesale post will help you narrow down your desired date fruit products.