National Center for Palms and Dates

The National Center for Palms and Dates is one of the entities responsible for organizing and developing date palm cultivation and date production in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is achieved through various pillars and strategies, such as institutional work, offering services to beneficiaries, marketing, investment, and quality.

The center was established in 2011 with its main headquarters located in the capital, Riyadh. In 2022, a Royal Decree was issued detailing the organizational arrangements of the center, mandating its organizational linkage to the Minister of Environment, Water, and Agriculture. The center has a board of directors tasked with overseeing and managing the center's affairs with members comprising the CEO of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA), representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture (MEWA), a representative from the Agricultural Development Fund, a representative from the Ministry of Commerce, the center's CEO, the Secretary of the Saudi Export Development Authority, and two experts in the center's field of operation, appointed by the Prime Minister based on the President's nomination. Their membership lasts for three years, renewable only once.

The center's tasks, as per its organizational arrangements, encompass a range of responsibilities. These include developing policies, plans, programs, and initiatives related to date palm cultivation, date production, and marketing. The center formulates, reviews, evaluates, and supervises the implementation of these initiatives. Additionally, it is responsible for reviewing regulations, organizations, laws, decisions, and orders that fall within its jurisdiction, ensuring they comply with established procedural guidelines. Furthermore, the center promotes the integration of dates into the food industry, facilitates their marketing, and raises awareness of their nutritional and health benefits. It actively supports research and applied studies in date palm cultivation, with a focus on increasing date production, improving marketing, and enhancing date packaging. The center also contributes to the enforcement of technical regulations and standards set by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) concerning dates in the Kingdom. Moreover, it encourages date producers to participate in local and international exhibitions.

The center also assumes the responsibility of creating a specialized database and information related to date palms and dates on its official website. It oversees an annual program aimed at supporting small-scale farmers to bolster rural development. Moreover, the center conducts studies and research on pests and diseases that affect date palms, ultimately reducing date production. It further represents the Kingdom in matters pertaining to the center's domain before corresponding authorities, regional organizations, and international entities. These functions, among others, are undertaken by the center to fulfill its role and mission effectively.

The center actively works to increase the Kingdom's exports of dates in all their varieties. It has significantly contributed to raising the Kingdom's date exports by 73 percent in terms of value and 68 percent in quantity between the years 2015 and 2020. This impressive growth reflects an annual average increase of 12 percent in both quantity and value. The Kingdom ranked first globally in date exports in 2021, in terms of value, as reported by (Trade Map), a website affiliated with the World Trade Organization (WTO). The value of Saudi date exports reached SAR1.215 billion.

The center offers various services, including disseminating knowledge and palm care culture, date purchasing programs, granting the Saudi Date Mark to farms and factories, conducting studies on the local date market, and organizing the marketing and export of dates through the electronic platform Saudi Dates established by the center.

Beneficiaries of the center's services include: farm owners, investors, factories, local date markets including festivals and exhibitions, up to importing countries, and global date markets.

The National Center for Palms and Dates has undergone a digital transformation in its dealings with beneficiaries, converting its programs and initiatives into electronic ones, alongside launching the Digital Academy for Palms and Dates.

The center launched the Agricultural Subsidies Program and the annual Date Purchase Platform, and its digital transformation programs have shortened the time needed to issue a phytosanitary certificate for those holding the Saudi Date Mark. The digital transformation included the establishment of an e-commerce platform for selling products that carry the Saudi Date Mark, a marketing outlet platform for selling farmers' dates, and an agricultural services platform to provide all agricultural process requirements and how to use them in one platform and Murshiduk application.

In 2022, the National Center for Palms and Dates launched the electronic Mouzare Platform. It aims to enable farmers to access products that support the value chain and to develop and grow the date palm cultivation sector by connecting them with providers of agricultural solutions related to palm cultivation. This provides the farmer with numerous growth and development opportunities.