Promoting Agricultural Value Chains
In the OIC Member Countries
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national laboratories. It reports directly to the Prime Minister and is a key player in terms of
science policy making, data collection and funding of research (Beers et al., 2014). The
National Center for Palms and Dates (NCPD) was established in 2011 with the objective of
supporting the production of dates and date products. A recent initiative of the NCPD involves
reducing the number of date varieties from 400 to the twenty most profitable ones. The Date
Palm Center of Excellence, hosted by King Faisal University and funded by the Ministry of
Higher Education, is the oldest research centre with nearly thirty years of experience in date
palm research. Recent research projects include pest control, biotechnology, and date
fermentation and value added products. Finally, the Date Palm Research Center, established in
1954, focuses on research on germ plasm, food processing and soil conservation (Beers et al.,
2014).
Thirdly, the Saudi government has recently initiated a specific research and development
(R&D) initiative on the marketing of dates in the context of the Agricultural Development Fund
(ADF). The ADF acts as a government-funded agricultural bank for short and medium-term
loans and is responsible for implementing a seven-point government strategy of the
agricultural sector, including the creation of a new agricultural information system in
cooperation with the Dutch Agricultural Economic Institute (LEI) (Oxford Business Group,
2014).
Despite the support of R&D activities, date production faces several challenges, most
importantly pests (red palm weevil and Al Wijam disease, lack of integrated pest
management), cultivation management (lack of irrigation and scarcity of water) and
productivity decrease (lack of new technology, lack of good quality offshoots, low quality and
undesirable varieties) (e.g. El-Juhany, 2010). Date palms have been associated with high water
consumption, but a study by the Saudi Irrigation and Drainage Authority found that high water
usage is commonly caused by over-irrigation rather than high water needs of date palms (El-
Juhany, 2010).
5.1.2 Standards
Specific quality standards for dates do not exist in Saudi Arabia. In the absence thereof, the
FAO CODEX Standard for Dates is used as reference (Beers et al., 2014), which includes the
following: dates “shall possess a characteristic colour and flavour for the variety and type, be of
proper stage of ripeness, be free of live insects and insect eggs and mites” and must “not
exceed the allowances for the respective defects”, such as blemishes, dirt, mould or decay
(CODEX STAN 143-1985).
However, quality problems are rife in date production and marketing, including the spread of
pests and diseases in different regions of the country (El-Juhany, 2010) and high levels of
bacterial contamination (Elsabea, 2012). Quality control and traceability systems are only in
place in modern palm plantation systems (Al-Shreed et al., 2012).
Since the early 2000s, the Saudi Arabian government has shown commitment to developing a
strong organic sector (Hartmann et al., 2012). To this purpose, the Ministry of Agriculture
established a specialised Department of Organic Farming in 2008 and set up the Kingdom’s
Organic Farming Project to train pilot farmers in organic farming practices. Organic
production, although at a low level, comprises vegetables, herbs and fruit crops, including
dates which are grown organically on about a dozen of farms. Until 2010, organic certification
by private certification bodies was only possible against international standards, such EU