A local newspaper recently reported the establishment of a new center to promote the production and marketing of Saudi dates. The project is to be implemented in cooperation with the Federation of the Gulf Cooperation Council Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the GCC ministries of agriculture. Dr. Fahd Al-Sultan, the secretary-general of the GCC chambers, said they will conduct feasibility studies on the establishment of food industries using locally produced dates and palm products and would also seek to develop more attractive and aggressive marketing techniques to promote date-based industries.
This is an issue that has been addressed more than once and continues to attract attention. The Kingdom is a major date producer with annual production reaching one million tons. Saudi Arabia has 32 million palm trees producing 322 different types of dates. This is a huge resource that needs to be tapped by applying modern technology. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Large quantities of the produce are wasted and exports do not exceed three percent of production. The bulk of the fruit is left on trees as these are produced on small farms owned by small farmers who cannot market their produce as effectively as required. In the end, an effort that takes months and years is wasted with farmers losing their meager financial resources with no hope for offsetting the losses, let alone make profits. Also wasted are the state subsidies provided to farmers.
Right now we are faced with a two-sided problem: marketing and manufacturing. There is a limited number of date processing factories in the country and these cannot take in all or even a substantial part of local production. The problem is compounded by the lack of innovative production and processing techniques to convince people to buy a good quality product.
Through wise policies that encourage the establishment of date-based industries, this largely untapped wealth could be turned into a major source of income generating billions of riyals. Confectionery industries, especially chocolates, which appear in more than 5,000 varieties, provide a good example. This is an industry that now constitutes a major source of income for many countries of the world. There are also milk products where one product, cheese, appears in more than 400 types. These products have elevated countries to the rank of leading producers and manufacturers.
We, too, can become like these countries if we know how to benefit from such a huge opportunity. We need to be a little bit more innovative, appreciate the opportunities at hand and know how to exploit them.
