RIYADH, 23 November — A Dutch company has already started supplying predatory bugs, beetles, wasps and mites to Saudi farms as part of the biological control of pests.
This was disclosed to Arab News by Jos G. van de Vooren, agricultural counselor at the Netherlands Embassy here. He said this new dimension in the bilateral cooperation follows the letter of intent signed between Minister of Agriculture Dr. Abdullah Al-Moammer and his Dutch counterpart Jan Brinkhorst during his visit to Riyadh in May last year.
Vooren said that as a result of the accord there was also growing cooperation between the Kingdom and the Netherlands in greenhouse cultivation as part of the Saudi government’s policy to promote water conservation on the agricultural front.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting in which agricultural counselors from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran will meet the representatives of 30 Dutch agricultural firms at a seminar on "Doing business in the Middle East" to be held in Amsterdam in the first week of December. Vooren and Mohsen Al-Bahaie, agricultural offer at the Dutch Embassy, will participate in the seminar. The official pointed out that the companies, including some new to the Saudi market, have already sent out queries to the Netherlands Embassy in Riyadh regarding the Kingdom’s rules and regulations for the agricultural sector, SASO and GCC standards as well as the activities of the Saudi agricultural companies.
Referring to the pest control problem on farms in different parts of the Kingdom, he said Koppert Biological Systems of the Netherlands was cooperating with some major agricultural companies here in providing biological solutions for pests like caterpillars, spider mite, aphid and white fly.
Jos pointed out that both countries were exploring solutions to the pest control problem away from pesticides. He mentioned the use of bumble bees on the farms for the pollination of fruits and vegetables.
"Our embassy is trying to create an awareness among the Saudi farmers in what the Netherlands has to offer in this field," he said.
The letter of intent also calls for cooperation between the two countries in the areas of food safety, veterinary medicine, plant health, pesticides management, biological control methods and potato cultivation.
