Saudi Arabia's new digital platform will sell more dates globally
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Jeddah: Aiming at taking its economy beyond oil exports, Saudi Arabia has decided to tap its iconic national resource—dates.
The Kingdom is now steering towards becoming the world's largest exporter of dates, further penetrating the global market, according to Arab News.
In order to achieve this vision, Saudi's National Center for Palms and Dates (NCPD) has launched the "Saudidates", an online platform.
This will enable buyers from across the world to buy dates in bulk from sellers in the Kingdom.
The platform highlighting the slogan "The Homeland of Dates" will offer an innovative, convenient and efficient business-to-business electronic market, the report said.
The slogan bespeaks how closely dates are related to the history of Saudi Arabia, just as it marks the kingdom's long history in date farming.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Nuwairan CEO of NCPD announced the launch of the platform on Twitter
He added that Saudidates' platform would gather best palm fruits in one electronic market taking the nation's heritage to the world.
The platform, according to him, aims at supporting and enhancing the ability of Saudi Arabia's national exports to access global markets.
Lined with more than 31 million palm trees that produce upwards of 1.5 million tons of different date varieties, Saudi Arabia is one of the world's leaders in date production.
Abdulrahman Al-Hamdan, who runs Dates Palms stores in Jeddah, is enthusiastic about NCPD exporting Saudi dates globally on an official platform.
Arab News quoted him as saying that all varieties of Saudi dates had already reached global market through efforts by local traders and private companies. The new platform, he said, would help sell dates with a guarantee.
Sharing the vision of the kingdom, he said that exporting any product would develop agriculture on the one hand and revive Saudi economy on the other.
Academic Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Olayan said he was proud of Saudidates' platform, saying that the trusted government platform would connect farmers, date producers with consumers across the world.
Saudi Arabia is home to a total of 31,234,153 palm trees producing 1,539,755 tons of dates, said a recent report from NCPD, according to Arab News.
Marking an increase in exports to 215,343,005 kgm, Saudi dates reach more than 107 countries.