A price on its own tells you very little. RM is just a number until you know which date it buys, who sorted it, how much fruit is in the pack and what else the seller has folded in. This guide works through a dates price in that order, using the date this site is named after as the yardstick.
Start with one plain, everyday date
Sayer comes from Iran, from Khuzestan province. It is also traded as Stamaran, so you may find both names on price lists for the same fruit. It is amber-brown and semi-dry.
One naming trap is worth knowing before you compare anything. Sayer is not Shahani. Shahani is a separate variety, and a list that puts the two under one line is mixing products. Ask the seller which one is in the box.
Every date sold in Malaysia is imported, because the country has no commercial date-growing trade. So a Sayer price is never measured against a cheaper home-grown crop. You are always comparing one import with another, and that makes the variety name the first thing to read.
Compare semi-dry with semi-dry
Several other varieties share Sayer's semi-dry texture, and these are the fair comparisons. Khudri, from Saudi Arabia, is brown and semi-dry and is bought as an everyday, value date. Deglet Noor comes from Tunisia or Algeria. It is golden, translucent and semi-dry, and when it is sold on the stem in Malaysia it goes by the name kurma tangkai.
Two Iranian dates need care. Mariami is dark, semi-dry and chewy. Piarom is a different variety from Hormozgan, dark and semi-dry with a thin skin. They should sit on separate lines with separate prices.
Soft dates are a separate purchase
Mazafati, from Bam in Iran's Kerman province, is dark, very soft and high in moisture. It needs refrigeration. It is cold-stored and sold year-round, which is normal for it, but it does mean you should ask how the stock was kept and whether it will travel chilled.
Medjool is large and very soft with a rich caramel taste. Ajwa, from Madinah, is small, roundish and near-black with soft, finely wrinkled skin. Line their prices up against Sayer and you are comparing different kinds of fruit, not a cheap and a dear version of the same thing.
Grade letters only work inside one list
A, AA, AAA and Jumbo are each importer's own size sorting. No international standard sits behind them. One seller's AA and another seller's AA can be quite different fruit.
Inside a single list the letters are useful. Green Diamond's Harga Kurma shop page, for instance, shows Ajwa in 1kg packs as A, AA and AAA VIP (Large), and Mariami in 5kg packs as A Normal and AA, each at its own ringgit price. Read the steps within that one ladder. Don't carry the letters across to another shop. The post on how date grades set prices in Malaysia goes into this further.
Work out the price per kilo of fruit
Packs come in 1kg, 5kg and other sizes, and some are boxed as gifts. Divide each price by the net weight of dates inside, leaving out the box, and add any delivery charge before you compare two offers. A tray or ribbon adds no fruit.
If you buy in bulk, ask what the quote includes: delivery, the minimum order and how long the quote stays valid. The wholesale date pricing guide looks at minimum orders and the other things that move a trade price.
Know when demand is heaviest
Demand peaks before and during Ramadan. Hari Raya, weddings with hantaran, kenduri and umrah gifts are the other busy times. Gulf and Middle-East dates are mostly harvested from late summer to autumn, roughly August to November, and new-season stock reaches Malaysia some weeks later. Ordering ahead of the rush gives you time to confirm variety, grade and net weight in writing. The post on festive-season demand for dates looks at that pattern from a shop's point of view.
Where to read on
For a single variety worked through in detail, pengedarkurma.com has a guide to purchasing date fruits when the date you want is Ajwa. If organic stock is what you want, the post on organic dates wholesale can help you narrow down your desired date fruit products.