The Ministry of Labor will study the application of a number of labor policies and laborers in the agricultural sector, including the implementation of Nitaqat system and treating farms as commercial establishments, according to Sultan Al-Thanyan, chairman of the date committee in Qassim.

Ahmad Al-Humaidan, secretary-general for the Ministry of Labor, had promised during a meeting that they are working to their full potential to avoid a possible catastrophe in the palm and date sector during the coming period, after farms were void of seasonal workers and shortages existed in services offered to palm farmers.

A group of farmers and farming entities met with the secretary-general to explain the problems of the sector.

Al-Humaidan said that a number of subjects and issues pertaining to the agricultural sector, and initiatives of the Ministry of Labor as well as numerous suggestions related to agriculture have been discussed during the meeting.

He added that an agreement has been reached and will be sent to the ministry. Saud Al-Dahyan, chairman of date producers’ society, said the Ministry of Labor has not discriminated between production, services and consumption in Saudization programs. He added that nationalization in the service sector is mostly fictitious, and coming days will uncover the instability of the sector.

Al-Dahyan said the Al-Butain Agricultural Society received orders to dispose of labor provided to farmers. He said palm farmers in Al-Qasim are facing a critical period, because palm services need more than 100,000 employees.

He said wages for palm services increased by more than 300 percent, which will have a great impact on prices of products, where the variance in price is paid to the service worker, because of the increased demand and weak supplies.