US date growers expand acreage in response to consumption growth “We are seeing a very robust supply of dates.” So says Neil Merritt, director of North American sales at Bard Valley Date Growers (BVDG), a vertically integrated company working with 14 organic and conventional date growers. “We generally grow around 25-30 million lbs. of dates and we typically sell through year to year. This year we harvested about 35 million lbs. of dates from Coachella, CA down into Yuma, AZ and into Mexico. It’s an aggressive crop,” he says. This year Bard Valley Date Growers harvested approximately 35 million lbs. of dates.