Sun Lovin’ Foods vs Desert Sun Dates: Snack Brand Pouches or the Actual Farm?

Sun Lovin’ Foods is a packaged-snack brand selling Coachella Valley–grown dates in retail pouches and tubs — Medjool, pitted Medjool, Deglet, and coconut or almond date rolls. We’re a Coachella Valley date farm. If you’re comparing the two, that one word is most of the comparison.

A packaging brand vs. the farm itself

Sun Lovin’ Foods sells dates “grown in California under the desert sun in the Coachella Valley” — sourced fruit, packed into 12 oz tubs and pouches from about $5.99–$8.99, much of it pre-pitted, plus date-roll snacks, with shipping added at checkout. It’s a retail convenience format: small containers, snack-aisle positioning.

We grow these. Fresh Jumbo Medjool Dates — Shipping Included | California Farm-Direct from our family farm in Sky Valley, California — from $19/lb, shipping included. See them →

Desert Sun Dates is the other end of that supply chain — the farm. We grow the palms, hand-pollinate, bag, harvest, grade and pack the fruit ourselves in Sky Valley, then ship it whole and jumbo-graded from our own cold room: $19 for 1 lb down to about $9.83/lb on the 12 lb box — shipping always included in the price.

The per-pound math, done honestly

Small-format pricing hides the real cost: a 12 oz tub at $7.49–$8.99 works out to $10–12+ per pound before shipping — for standard-grade, often pre-pitted fruit. Pre-pitted dates dry from the cut the day they’re pitted; whole fruit with the pit in arrives soft and stays soft. Our jumbo whole Medjool lands at $9.83–$19/lb with shipping already included — larger fruit, fresher path, lower landed cost at every multi-pound size.

Who actually grew your dates?

It’s the question we’d ask of any package: not “where was this grown” but “who grew it, and can I ask them anything?” On our boxes the answer is one farmer’s name and a phone number that he answers — here’s the farm, palms and all. For bulk buyers, our wholesale cases run from $228 for 24 lb, freight included, with Ramadan 2027 pre-orders open now.

The bottom line

Snack pouches have their place on a store shelf. If you’re buying dates online anyway, buying them from the farm that grew them gets you bigger fruit, whole-fruit freshness, and a lower real price per pound — the farm-direct prices are here, and every valley farm comparison is in our complete local guide.

Desert Sun Dates is a family farm in Sky Valley, California. We grow, hand-harvest, pack and ship every order ourselves.