JEDDAH, 30 October 2006 -- Despite of the strategic importance of dates and the governmental support in the Kingdom to their production and industrialization, this national wealth has not been taken care of by the businessmen of private sectors. Furthermore, the development of producing and industrializing dates has not matched the high level approached by some countries like US and Tunisia due to the tendency of businessmen to invest in faster and more profitable fields of business. With the Kingdom joining the World Trade Organization, it needs to identify the most unique characteristic and competitive advantages of its dates in order to participate internationally with the flood of heavy valued products across the local and the international markets.
A new study revealed ten obstacles stifling the growth of Saudi Arabia's export of dates despite the government's interest in developing this product as another source of revenue besides oil. Dr. Saad Eissa, general director of marketing at Ministry of Agriculture, said that top among these obstacles is quality and called for special care to quality from the start at the farm.
In an official paper on "Date Exports in Saudi Arabia: Opportunities and Obstacles", Eissa said that improving quality requires attention to implementing export standards during harvest and marketing services such as sorting, categorizing, packing, storing and transporting. Other major obstacles according to Eissa are shipping quality, transfer and high shipping costs, which are usually at the expense of the producer. Also, import regulations imposed by some countries such as country-of-origin certificates and health certificates are among the obstacles that hinder the export of Saudi dates in addition to the complicated bureaucracy to obtain exporting documents and procedures at exit points that increase financial risks.
Eissa also pointed out in his paper that the absence of information on the nutritional benefits of dates for the consumer at the targeted countries makes marketing dates difficult. Another difficulty is the demands of agents that burden the producers especially with the lack of information on outside markets with regards to quantity, types and prices despite the presence of Saudi commercial representation in most of the targeted countries. Eissa also indicated that EU countries and the US impose strict regulations regarding standards for size, color, degree of ripeness and package and explained that this hinders some projects for exporting Saudi dates to those countries.
Another obstacle is the poor participation of Saudi date producers and manufacturers in specialized agricultural exhibitions held around the world. Therefore, they do not benefit from these exhibitions in promoting Saudi dates.
Eissa made some recommendations to overcome these obstacles and increase the export of Saudi dates. Top among his recommendations is supporting the export of dates in a way that does not conflict with international laws and regulations. The Agriculture Ministry offers assistance to the date processing industry, including consultancy services to farmers and factory owners. The Kingdom is one of the world's top date producers. There are 13 million date palms in the country that are spread over 274,000 hectares of farmland. The demand for superior varieties of dates such as Bisha, Sukri Qasim, Burji Qasim, Ambariyah, Harra Madinah and Anbariah are very high. The Kingdom produces 850,000 tons of dates annually.
The recent research also recommends raising the awareness of farmers and producers of the importance of quality and the implementation of standards regulations imposed by importing countries and the organizing of exhibitions for dates to create a taste and a demand for dates.
Eissa emphasized on the importance of avoiding insect-affected produce that would harm the reputation of Saudi dates in addition to conducting economic feasibility studies for exporting dates in order to prevent financial losses resulting from high export expenses. Eissa also spoke of the importance of having the required information on supply and demand, which would determine prices in the targeted international markets, and he pointed to the need for farmers, manufacturers and traders to be actively involved with the Center for Export Development by being members and benefiting from the information provided by the center and asking for information.
According to Eissa's paper, Saudi export of dates reached 49.1 thousand tons last year. Fresh dates represented 25 percent of those exports, dried dates 14 percent and stored dates 15 percent. Dates industry and its derivatives are new in the world. Their techniques have been recently developed in Saudi Arabia aiming to make good use of opening marketing channels abroad. The worldwide annual production of dried date is 3.11 million tons. Saudi Arabia is considered the first producer. The ascription of its production is 19.3 percent from the worldwide total production. Saudi Arabia is the second exporting country of dried dates after Iraq. The drop in the exporting quantities is attributed to the high consumption of the local production and the storage of big quantities in the harvest season to be used if necessary. In addition to some other technical reasons concerning manufacturing, packing and poor advertising.
Other dried dates producing countries suffer of big overabundant of dried dates for which they found the necessity of enrolling dried dates in the manufacturing of foodstuff. These products include date paste, vinegar industry, molasses industry, date pickles, date dessert, date jams and jelly, baked products, children nutrition and producing nourishing drinks made up of date paste and milk.
The Saudi ministries of agriculture and industry encourage investors to enter the industry of dried dates and its derivatives. International marketing opportunities are still available for the Saudi dried dates especially that this industry does not require either sophisticated technology or huge funds to make an average good use of dried dates. Besides that the Saudi dried dates are privileged for their high quality compared to the products of other countries.
By Maha Akeel
© Arab News 2006
