For a pengedar, the pack matters as much as the date
Ask a household buyer about jenis2 kurma and they will talk about taste. A pengedar has a second question: what does it come packed in? The same date can sit in a 5kg carton, a 1kg bag or a 200g pouch, and each one sells to a different customer. When you buy stock online, the pack format is the thing you can check most easily from a listing, so it is a good place to start.
A short refresher on the varieties first. Green Diamond's page on Jenis2 Kurma covers the Iranian names in depth. Below are the five you will meet most often on Malaysian wholesale listings, with the formats each one usually comes in.
Five varieties and how they are packed
Mariami is from Iran: golden-brown to dark brown, soft and meaty, with a caramel-like sweetness. Some sellers call it Piarom. It is graded by size and evenness (A, AA, AAA or Jumbo) and comes in 5kg cartons, 1kg bags, pouches of 200g or 400g sold by the dozen or two dozen, and boxed 500g packs for hampers.
Ajwa and Safawi both come from Madinah. Ajwa is the smaller, wrinkled, aromatic one. Safawi is near-black and thicker-fleshed, with a sweetness that is not sticky. Both are sold in 1kg packs, 5kg cartons and 200g pouches by the 24, and Ajwa also turns up in gift boxes.
Medjool is the big date, grown in the Jordan Valley and Palestine, and graded by size as Large, Jumbo and Super Jumbo. Expect 900g boxes, 250g and 500g packs by the dozen or two dozen, 1kg packs by the eight and 5kg cartons. Before setting your own price, read this Medjool price breakdown, and our note on Medjool taste and ripeness if customers ask what they are paying for.
Deglet Noor comes from Tunisia and Algeria. It is semi-dry, golden yellow to light brown, chewy and lightly sweet, and is often sold still on the stalk as kurma tangkai. Listings split it into bertangkai and tanpa tangkai, in 227g, 250g and 400g packs by the box, or loose in 5kg cartons. Read the line carefully, because a stalk pack and a loose carton are different products. We cover the Ramadan side of this in kurma tangkai and the distributor's role.
Matching the format to who you sell to
There are numerous types of dates to choose from, but your customer list narrows them quickly. Pouches and 1kg bags fit a runcit shop shelf. 5kg cartons suit kenduri caterers and surau committees buying in bulk. Boxed packs suit corporate Raya orders. Buying one Mariami AA carton and repacking it yourself is a different business from reselling sealed pouches. Repacking means scales, sealed bags and labels, and you take on the shelf life once the carton is open.
What to confirm before ordering stock online
When purchasing dates online in volume, confirm the net weight per pack and the number of packs per carton in writing. Ask for the season year; Green Diamond, for one, prints it in the product name. Ask whether the stock needs to be kept chilled. Mazafati from Bam, for example, is a wet date that is normally stored chilled or frozen. Order one carton as a trial before a full run. A supplier who explains each listing plainly is the one that keeps fresh and high-quality dates in your stockroom. Our list of what to check on a supplier before becoming a pengedar kurma goes further.