"Dry fruit" is a catch-all term, and lumping everything under it hides real differences in how each one is made, tastes, and keeps. Kurma (dates), raisins, dried apricots, prunes, and dried figs are the five you'll most often find on a Malaysian shelf, and each behaves differently once it's dried.
Kurma is dried while still on or shortly after leaving the palm, and the variety changes the result completely. A soft-textured type like Kurma Mariami AA stays chewy and moist because it's picked and processed at a stage that keeps more natural moisture in, while a firmer variety like Ajwa or Safawi dries denser and lasts longer at room temperature. If you want to see how one grade actually holds up over weeks in storage, our writeup on Medjool dates and pricing breaks down what you're paying for at each grade.
Raisins are dried grapes, and unlike kurma they're almost always sun-dried or mechanically dehydrated after harvest rather than dried on the vine. That's why raisins are uniformly small and wrinkled — the whole fruit shrinks evenly, whereas a date's flesh-to-seed ratio means it dries unevenly around the pit. Dried apricots go through sulphuring in most commercial batches to keep their orange colour; unsulphured ones turn dark brown and taste noticeably more concentrated and tart.
Prunes (dried plums) and dried figs are both higher in natural sugar content by weight than fresh fruit, simply because removing water concentrates everything that was already in the fruit — sugars, fibre, minerals. That's true of dried kurma too, which is why portion size matters more with any dried fruit than with the fresh version. For a closer comparison of what changes when a date goes from fresh to dried, see our piece on fresh vs. dried buah kurma.
Storage is where these fruits diverge most in practice. Kurma with lower moisture (Ajwa, Safawi-type) keeps for months in a sealed container at room temperature; the softer, moister varieties do better refrigerated. Raisins and dried apricots are shelf-stable for a similar stretch if kept airtight and away from humidity — Malaysia's climate makes an airtight tin or vacuum bag worth the extra step for any of these. If you're buying kurma specifically and want a sense of where prices land by variety and grade, our guide on local and imported kurma covers that ground.
None of these are a substitute for a balanced diet, and none of them are "healthy" simply because they're dried — they're concentrated versions of the fresh fruit, sugar included. Knowing which one you're buying, and why it was dried the way it was, is more useful than a blanket health claim.