Balah in Saudi Arabia

Balah in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the stages of palm fruit development in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It starts with a green color and a small size resembling sour grapes. As it matures, its color shifts to red or golden. During the stage when the Balah appears on the palm, farmers reduce the load on the palm tree by removing al-Shays, al-Sakhl, or al-Saysa, which are unpollinated Balah on the stalks. Thus, every three Balah are in one cluster.

The stages of Balah development begin with the process of Sarbana, which involves removing the Sarban, which is the small Balah that is greenish, in addition to cutting off the sprouts. When the Balah falls into the palm basin, they are called al-Sadi. The remaining Balah on the tree then goes through various maturity stages until they become ripe. This stage is called al-Siyab, with its singular form being Siyaba. It also has another name, al-Jedal, with its singular form being Jedala.

In its early stages, the Balah is not edible when it is without a pit, as its taste is not sweet. Some of it tends to be sour and is called mumzar. It's also from the palm fruits that have not been thinned out, known as shays, sysa, sakhl, or sakhal. However, the shays when fruited in a pruned palm become edible and are called falayt.

Farmers store the balah fruits after they mature to ensure they remain available for an extended period, beyond their natural season, as balah is highly popular. The method of storing Balah when it is fully ripe, in the basr phase, involves placing them in boxes lined with a special type of polyethylene to reduce moisture loss. Then, they are placed in refrigerators where the temperature reaches -18 degrees Celcius. Afterward, they are taken out of the refrigerators and exposed to normal room temperature for a day or two, at which point their color turns brown.

The Kingdom produces about three hundred varieties of dates, with an estimated annual production of around 1.54 million t. In 2021, the Kingdom ranked first in date exports, reaching approximately SAR1.215 billion. The date sector is one of the essential sectors that contribute to increasing investments and local exports to countries worldwide.