Kurma Nabi is a market name for Ajwa, the date this site is built around. It is also a date where the price on the box can be hard to read. The same variety can come in different pack sizes and under several grade letters, and each of those changes what a number means. What follows is a way to work out what an Ajwa price is actually paying for.
Start with the name and the country
Ajwa comes from Madinah in Saudi Arabia. It is small and roundish, near-black, with finely wrinkled skin and a soft bite. Since Malaysia has no commercial date-growing trade, all Ajwa here is imported, and a label that says "Kurma Nabi" should also say Ajwa and Saudi Arabia somewhere on it. If it does not, ask the seller which variety it is before you weigh up the price.
Looks are not proof of origin. Taste or colour checks cannot reliably confirm that a box really holds Ajwa, so the label and the seller's written description are what you rely on.
The dates in this photo are Sayer, an Iranian variety from Khuzestan that is also traded as Stamaran. Sayer is amber-brown and semi-dry. Set that against the small, near-black Ajwa described above and it is clear these are two separate buys, each with its own price.
Madinah dates are not interchangeable
Safawi and Mabroom also come from the Madinah region, and they can sit on the same shelf as Ajwa. Safawi is longer than Ajwa, dark brown to black, soft and chewy. Mabroom is long and slender, reddish-brown and semi-dry. Sharing a region does not make them the same date, so an Ajwa price should be compared only with other Ajwa. The post on how Safawi tastes next to Ajwa is useful if you are choosing between the two.
Grade letters belong to the seller
Ajwa is sold under grade letters such as A, AA and AAA. None of these is an international standard. Every importer sorts its own stock by size, which means an AA from one seller and an AA from the next may not be the same fruit.
Within one seller the ladder still helps. On Green Diamond's Harga Kurma listing, 1kg Ajwa is currently in stock as A, AA and AAA VIP (Large), three separate products from one variety. Comparing up or down that ladder inside one shop is fair. Comparing an A from one shop with an AA from another tells you little until you know what each letter means there. For more on this, read the post on reading a date price quote.
Gift box or plain pack
Umrah gifts and hantaran trays are among the busy points of the year for dates, and dates bought for giving may come in a decorated box. A decorated box and a plain pack can hold the same weight of the same grade. Divide each price by the net weight of the dates (not the gross weight of the box) and the difference you are left with is what you are paying for presentation. Sometimes that is worth it. At least you will know the number.
Buying in bulk changes the sums again. If you are ordering for a kenduri or for resale, the post on buying Ajwa wholesale covers what to settle with a bulk supplier first.
When you buy
Demand peaks before and during Ramadan, then around Hari Raya, weddings, kenduri and umrah gifts. Gulf dates are mostly harvested from late summer to autumn, roughly August to November, and fresh stock takes some weeks after that to arrive in Malaysia. If you need Ajwa for a set occasion, order with time to spare and get the grade and net weight confirmed in writing.
Before you pay
Check that the label says Ajwa and Saudi Arabia and find out what the seller's grade letter means. Then work the price out per kilo, delivery charge included. For a second opinion, pengedarkurma.com has a guide to purchasing date fruits of the Ajwa variety in Malaysia. If you are looking at organic stock, the post on organic dates wholesale is another place to start when sorting out your desired date fruit products.