Jakarta. The world's largest Muslim-majority country Indonesia is mainly importing its dates -- a staple Ramadan fruit -- from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

Almost three weeks have passed since Ramadan began in Indonesia and the rest of the world. The chewy, sweet dates have become a staple in iftar or the meals people have in the evening to break their fast. Official data showed that Indonesia's imports of dates had skyrocketed ahead of Ramadan as the Southeast Asian country tried to meet its growing demand. BPS reported Monday that Indonesia's date imports reached 32,890 tons -- worth nearly $38.8 million -- in the first two months of 2025. Indonesia brought in 16,469 tons of the foreign-grown fruit in February alone with imports totaling almost $18.1 million. Over half of these dates came from Egypt.

"Indonesia imported 9,240 tons of Egyptian dates [in February]. They made up 56.12 percent of our date imports that month," BPS' chief Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti told a press briefing.

Amalia added: "Cumulatively, we imported 19,390 tons from Egypt [between January and February]. Egypt supplied 58.95 percent of the foreign dates over the said period."

Saudi Arabia was Indonesia's second-largest date supplier as the Middle Eastern country sold about 2,690 tons last month. This is equivalent to 16.3 percent of Indonesia's imported dates. Riyadh retained its second place in the cumulative data. According to Amalia, Saudi Arabia supplied nearly 13.9 percent of the date imports in January-February 2025.

Indonesia had bought quite a substantial amount of dates from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with whom the country has a free trade deal. The country's imports of dates from the UAE reached 1,190 tons in February. This represents about 7.2 percent of the total imports. Emirati dates also made up almost 9 percent of the imports in the same two-month period.

Aside from the usual iftar needs, Indonesia has included dates in the government-aided free school meals, increasing its demand. The government has been running the free meal program -- part of President Prabowo Subianto's campaign promise -- for the past three months. On normal days, the lunch usually consists of hot meals such as chicken rice dishes. During Ramadan, the government is still distributing the meals to students although there are some menu changes. The meal now includes longer-lasting foods, including dates, so they remain edible when the students consume them for iftar. Despite not fasting, non-Muslim students still get their free meals.

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