Opinion

Saudize the date palm industry

August 18, 2017
Saudize the date palm industry

Rashid Muhammad Al-Fawzan

Al-Riyadh daily

In one of its latest reports, the General Statistics Authority has indicated that the number of palm trees in the country has reached around 28.5 million. The Kingdom’s population is 31 million and the number of Saudis is 22 million. In one of his statements to Makkah daily around two years ago, Palm Tree National Center director Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Janoubi noted that the Kingdom consumes 800,000 tons of dates while the surplus reaches 300,000 tons. The Kingdom exports 70,000 tons of dates every year and 30 percent of the exports are in the form of gifts and charity.

If we assume that the percentage of production increased 1.1 million tons to reach 1.3 million tons, then we are talking about a huge number of palm trees and a very high production rate. We are in dire need of a new statistics report about the current number of palm trees.

Given the enormous number of palm trees and the volume of production which exceeds 800,000 tons and the surplus nearing 300,000 tons, the question is: Who controls the market for dates? Why do Saudi farmers continue to face difficulty in finding expatriate workers who are willing to work on their farm? Why do many Saudis who cannot find such workers end up renting their farms to expatriate workers? These are important questions.

It should be noted that newspapers report every now and then cases of the toxicity of dates and the use of special chemicals that make dates dangerous to consume. Apparently, this is the result of farmers who want the dates to grow fast and look bigger than usual so that they meet public specifications. People here care about the color and size of dates.

As far as I know, many Saudi farmers end up selling surplus dates at the cheapest prices because they do not know what to do with them? Some farmers burn palm trees that they do not want. Obviously, they do that because they do not know how to invest in these trees. Some of them do not know how to diversify production and use dates to make different products, such as sweets, etc. A palm tree is like a factory that can produce many products. The majority of farmers are, unfortunately, unaware of this fact.

I do not know why the Ministry of Labor has not Saudized this business. It can generate job opportunities for Saudis if the ministry provides youth with support. Dates can be viewed as an important part of food security; therefore, this sector should be enhanced to reduce the rate of unemployment.


August 18, 2017
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