The total value of Saudi Arabia's exports of date totaled SR1.215 billion in 2021, marking an increase of 31% compared to 2020. Saudi Arabia's dates accessed 113 countries, where fresh and stored dates accounted for 77% of the total exports and other dates made up 23%. The percentage of increase of the value of dates' exports went up by 110% since 2016, where the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia realized the highest annual increase in date exports of 13% over the past five years, according to a report by the General Authority for Statistics. The Kingdom has contributed to supporting the sector of palms and dates at the international level through several initiatives in coordination with UN organizations, where the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA) and National Center for Palms and Dates (NCPD) are planning programs to boost this sector. The MEWA and NCPD have managed to prepare and implement initiatives, workshops and permanent programs through an executive strategy for these initiatives in a final way, such as registering dates as a super fruit at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 2019, and, in turn, FAO endorsing 2017 as the international year of dates. Additionally, coordination is now ongoing with FAO to announce the world day of dates. These initiatives also included the entry of Germplasm Bank of Date and Palm to the Guinness World Record for the most varieties of date palms with 127, with Saudi Arabia being accredited by the CODEX as a co-president in a team that prepares international standards for dates. Saudi Arabia also contributed to establishing the Dates International Conference, whose two editions were held in Riyadh and Qassim, in addition to establishing the International Dates Council under the presidency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in February 2022. — SPA
