Mashrooq Dates

Mid-tier Madinah date — caramel-sweet, sold by count band

Mashrooq — spelled mashruq or mashrook on some price lists — is a Madinah and Hijaz variety that appears consistently in the middle of the Madinah date-house lists: a slender, elongated fruit, deep brown when cured, with a chewy, semi-dry flesh and a sweetness the trade usually describes as caramel-toned. It is semi-dry in the commercial sense that matters. Cured to roughly 14–18% moisture it is ambient-stable, which shapes its entire cost structure: the fruit ships in a standard container, holds in a cool dry store for around a year, and never obliges the buyer to fund the cold chain a soft date demands. Grading follows the standard Madinah packing-house pattern rather than any variety-specific system — fruit is sorted by size into count-per-kilogram bands, by moisture, and by defect percentage covering splits, loose skin, dark ends and infestation, into premium, first and second carton grades, with pitted lines run for food-service demand. Export lots carry phytosanitary and Halal certification and ship against SGS or Intertek pre-shipment inspection of moisture, count, foreign matter, pest damage and mould. Because varietal literature on Mashrooq is thin compared with Ajwa or Sukkari, the contract has to do the work the name cannot: a properly written Mashrooq contract names the variety, the packing house, the count band and the moisture ceiling, and treats 'premium' as a defined defect tolerance rather than an adjective.

Mashrooq's commercial case is quality-to-price ratio. It is bought by importers who want a genuine Madinah date with real eating quality at mid-tier money: below Safawi, Sagai and Sukkari, comfortably below Mabroom, and a clear step above Khudri volume fruit. That position makes it a natural second or third line in a mixed assortment — the date that fills the box between the Ajwa headline and the value layer — and a sensible standalone line for ethnic retail, food service and hamper packers who need Madinah provenance on the label without headline-variety pricing. Its elongated shape presents well in trays, which sustains steady demand from gift-assortment packers around Ramadan, Hajj and Umrah. The spec discipline is size: 'Mashrooq' on its own commits the packer to nothing, and the difference between a large-count and small-count band is visible the moment the tray is opened, so contract the count per kilogram, not the name. On logistics, ambient shipment is standard and the semi-dry cure is the point — paying reefer rates year-round for Mashrooq is money wasted, though for July and August sailings out of Jeddah a reefer at 10–15°C is worth the margin to arrive without sugar bloom or syruping. Stored below 18°C at moderate humidity the fruit holds for around twelve months. CBIL contracts Mashrooq from Madinah packing houses by named grade with independent inspection at loading, quoted FOB Jeddah, CFR or CIF.