Buraidah date farmers achieve record sales

Date farmers at Buraidah seasonal date market sold dates worth more than SR12 million in a single day.
Nearly 1,400 trucks loaded with more than 210 packets of sukkari dates entered the market with a price tag of SR60 per pack.
The festival is registering an increase in sales every day, sometimes exceeding SR25 million a day.
The city receives more than 200,000 tons of the different types of dates, which represent the product of more than seven million palm trees.
The festival lasts 75 days and receives more than 45 types of the most famous dates in the world.
Every year, the festival kicks off in mid-August as a celebration of the harvest, where farmers have been selling their crop at Al-Jeradah market for the last 50 years.
The celebration of the season evolved in terms of its location and the services it provides. Qassim authorities allocated a special space for the festival, in addition to other specialized areas for the commercial activities of dates’ industry.
Ali Al-Faiyzi, one of the biggest farmers in the industry, said that the crop is very good this year in terms of quantity and quality. “Farmers are now savvier with the advanced methods of farming. They give more attention and care to their fields knowing that the industry is making good profits, which sometimes reaches millions,” he added.
He said that job opportunities in the palm and dates industry and seasonal jobs for youth in particular are available so they can boost their income if they wish.
Khaled Al-Naqeedan, CEO of Buraidah Date Festival, said that the beginning of the festival recorded unprecedented figures and provided several job opportunities for Saudis.
“The secretariat of Qassim made available vast courts and locations for the festival, and sites for the operations of packaging and transportation,” he said.
He added that there are trucks to transport dates to several regions in the country.
Authorities in Qassim supervise the packaging process to prevent cheating and to standardize the quantities in each individual pack, almost 3.50 kg a pack.