HISTORY OF THE DATE
Tafilalet is a vast region located in the south-east of Morocco, serving as a gateway to the desert, and famous in the Arab world for its role as a caravan crossroads. This is where the Mejhoul was born, in the ancestral cradle of the Errachidia region.
South of the High Atlas Mountain range, the palm groves of Tafilalet are the most important in the Maghreb region. They are mainly organized around two wadis descending from the High Atlas: The Ziz and the Rheriss whose courses come together and provide water supply to this region.
Mejhoul dates are the oldest fruits cultivated in the region and ancient cultures considered date palms to be “trees of life” given that a multitude of products are derived from them.
In the 19th century, following a devastating epidemic (Fusarium wilt or Bayoud disease) several million palm trees were infected and the Mejhoul variety was endangered in Morocco.
Mejhoul was then introduced to the United States in 1927 by an American grower who has crisscrossed Morocco in search of the best plant to import into California. Thus, eleven ramifications of dates were imported from the Boudnib area in Errachidia province, to California to ensure the preservation of the Mejhoul variety.
Today, all Mejhoul dates from the main producing countries can be traced back to a single oasis in Morocco.
The rehabilitation of the date palm culture heritage, undertaken as part of the Green Morocco Plan in 2008, aims to restructure the palm grove and improve date production in order to reinstate Morocco as a key player in the Mejhoul date.
For these reasons, Medjool Star has made it its mission to be the flagship of the Moroccan Mejhoul date on an international scale by repositioning its origin at the forefront of international markets.