The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the second-largest producer of dates in the world, has contributed in coordination with international organizations to support the date palm sector globally through initiatives, said local reports.
The Saudi National Center for Palms and Dates (NCPD) and the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture worked on formulating and implementing initiatives, and holding workshops and permanent programs through a strategy to implement these initiatives, the reports said.
The initiatives were represented by the registering dates as a super fruit with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN in 2019, and approving the International Year of Dates in 2027 by FAO, during its 42nd session, and referring the project to the UN General Assembly for approval.
These initiatives included registering the Germplasm Bank of Date Palm Varieties into the Guinness Book of Records for the largest number of palm varieties with 127 varieties.
The reports said that there is current coordination with the FAO to announce the World Dates Day.
Saudi Arabia was also approved by the Codex Alimentarius Committee as chairman, said the reports.
It also participated in the team for preparing the specifications of dates globally and contributed to the establishment of the International Conference on Dates, which was held twice, in Riyadh and Qassim.
Saudi Arabia had supported the idea of establishing the International Date Council to strengthen international cooperation in this field and hosted its preliminary meeting in 2011, as well as the constituent meeting in 2013, reported local sources.
The reports said that in 2020, the country hosted the International Date Council meeting, under the chairmanship of the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadhli, with the participation of 11 countries.
The 11 countries included the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Oman, Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia and Mauritania, in addition to FAO and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development.