Bateel vs Desert Sun Dates: Luxury Gift Box or Farm Fruit?

I own Desert Sun Dates, so I have an interest here. Figures below came from Bateel’s US site on 24 August 2026.

This is the least fair comparison I have written, and I want to say so at the top. Bateel is not really selling dates. They are selling gifts. Comparing their price per pound to ours is like comparing a bottle of wine to a case of grapes — technically the same fruit, entirely different purchase. What follows is an attempt to work out which purchase you are actually making.

We grow these. Zahidi Dates | California-Grown & Farm-Direct | Desert Sun Dates from our family farm in Sky Valley, California — from $19/lb, shipping included. See them →

The comparison, checked 24 August 2026

	Bateel	Desert Sun Dates
Founded	1936	Family farm, Coachella Valley
Grown	Al Ghat, Saudi Arabia	Sky Valley, California
Packed	Dubai, then shipped to the US	On the farm
Certified organic	Yes	No
Sold in	250 g and 500 g boxes	1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 lb boxes
Medjool from	$34 (250 g) ≈ $62/lb	$19 (1 lb) · $118 (12 lb) = $9.83/lb
Varieties	Medjool, Ajwa, Khidri, Kholas, Segai, Sokari, Wanan	Medjool, Zahidi, Barhi
Filled / flavoured dates	Extensive	None
Packaging	Hand-painted boxes, wooden gift cases	Sealed food containers in a corrugated box

What Bateel is genuinely excellent at

Presentation. Nobody in this industry comes close. Hand-painted boxes, wooden cases, dates filled with pistachio and orange peel and caramelised cashew. If you have ever received one you remember the box as much as the fruit. That is a craft and they have spent ninety years on it.

Variety. They sell Ajwa, Sokari, Segai, Khidri, Kholas and Wanan — Middle Eastern varieties that essentially nobody grows commercially in California. If you grew up with Ajwa or Sokari and want the date you actually remember, I cannot help you and they can. Ajwa in particular carries religious and cultural significance that no Californian Medjool substitutes for.

Certification. They are certified organic. We are not, and we do not claim to be.

Corporate and occasion gifting. If you need forty presentable gifts for clients before a holiday, they have built exactly that and we have not.

What you are paying for

Their entry Medjool box is 250 grams — a little over half a pound — from $34. That works out to roughly $62 a pound.

Our Medjool is $19 for a full pound delivered, and $9.83 a pound if you buy the 12 lb box. Shipping is inside both numbers.

So at the entry size we are roughly a third of their price per pound, and at the large size closer to a sixth.

That difference is not fruit quality. It is packaging, retail boutiques, brand, and the fact that the dates have crossed an ocean. Those are real costs and Bateel is not overcharging for what it delivers — a hand-painted gift box genuinely costs money to make. But if what you want is dates to eat, you are paying a great deal for a box you will throw away.

The freshness question

This is worth being specific about, because Bateel are admirably open about their own supply chain.

Their organic date farms are in the Al Ghat region of Saudi Arabia, north of Riyadh, where they say more than 100,000 date palms grow. The fruit is hand-picked, and by their own account it is immediately placed into storage to halt further ripening. It is then transported to their facility in Dubai, where it is cleaned, graded, and packed. From there it is shipped to markets around the world, including the United States.

Saudi Arabia, then Dubai, then to you. That is a considerable journey, and the storage step exists precisely because the fruit has to survive it.

Ours are grown in Sky Valley, hand-harvested, packed on the ranch in a shed about two hundred yards from the palms, and put in the post within three business days.

Dates are shelf-stable, so this matters less than it would with a peach, and imported dates are not bad dates. But there is a real difference between fruit that left the tree this month and fruit held in storage and moved between two countries before it reaches a shelf, and it shows up most in the texture of a soft Medjool.

There is a small irony in this one. Bateel’s own materials describe Medjool as “also known as California date” — and that is fair, because California is where the American Medjool industry was built. If it is specifically a Medjool you want, you can buy one that was grown in Saudi Arabia and packed in Dubai, or one that was grown in California. We are the second kind.

If you want to test that claim rather than believe it, our grove is on Longvue Road in Sky Valley. Call the farm on (760) 501-1845 and I will walk you down the rows and you can eat one off the palm.

Which should you buy?

Buy Bateel if you are giving a gift and you want the packaging to do work; you want Ajwa, Sokari, Segai or another Middle Eastern variety; you need certified organic; or you are buying for a formal occasion where presentation matters more than volume. They are very good at this and I would buy from them myself for a gift.

Buy from us if you want dates to eat rather than to present; you want California-grown fruit within days of harvest; you want to buy by the pound instead of by the box; you want Zahidi or Barhi alongside your Medjool; or you would rather spend your money on fruit than on a box.

These are genuinely different products aimed at different moments. The only mistake is buying a luxury gift box because you wanted a month’s supply of dates, or sending a 12 lb corrugated carton to someone expecting a present.

Our Medjool dates →  ·  What is in stock today →

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Written by Jason Shopshear, who grows Medjool, Zahidi and Barhi dates at Desert Sun Dates in Sky Valley, California. Bateel’s prices, box sizes, variety range and the description of their farms and packing operation were read from their own published material on 24 August 2026 and may since have changed. Per-pound figures are calculated from their published box weights and starting prices. If anything here is wrong, email me and I will correct it.