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Saudi Arabia Is World's Top Dates Exporter

Saudi Arabia was the world’s top exporter of dates in 2021. (SPA)
Saudi Arabia was the world’s top exporter of dates in 2021. (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia Is World's Top Dates Exporter

Saudi Arabia was the world’s top exporter of dates in 2021. (SPA)
Saudi Arabia was the world’s top exporter of dates in 2021. (SPA)

Saudi Arabia was the world’s top exporter of dates in 2021, revealed Trendmap.

The Kingdom topped a list of 113 export countries, reaping 1.215 billion riyals (324 million dollars) from selling dates.

This means dates are among the most important sectors that help in raising national investments and exports, achieving one of the goals of Vision 2030.

The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture revealed that Saudi Arabia produces and exports over 300 types of dates with production reaching 1.54 tons annually.

In a report, it said the season for producing dates begins in June and ends in November.

Saudi Arabia boasts the best quality dates and the ministry is working to transform the Kingdom into the world’s top producer, through improving the quality of production at farms and other measures.

Organic farms in the Kingdom adopt international food standards that ease the export process. Demand for dates as an organic product has risen in Europe, the United States and Japan.

This in turn has helped encourage investment to develop the palm and dates industry to make Saudi dates the world’s first choice for the product.

Saudi Arabia boasts 33 million palm trees. It produces various types of dates, including al-Barhi, al-Khudri, al-Khalas, al-Sukkari, al-Safawi, al-Safari, al-Ajwa, al-Anbara and others.

The ministry is working on establishing a comprehensive system of agricultural, logistic, marketing and information services to improve the local and international production and consumption of Saudi dates.

It has also proposed initiatives with United Nations agencies that have led to dates’ registration as a super fruit at the Food and Agriculture Organization, which declared 2027 the International Year of Dates.

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Egypt Approves $91 Billion Budget for 2025/26

The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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Egypt Approves $91 Billion Budget for 2025/26

The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)
The sun rises in Cairo, Egypt March 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Egypt's cabinet approved a 4.6 trillion Egyptian pound ($91 billion) draft state budget for the financial year that will begin in July, a government statement said on Wednesday, as it continues to tighten its finances under an IMF program.

Expenditures will rise by 18% and revenue by 19% over the current 2024/25 budget. Revenue is expected to hit 3.1 trillion pounds, working out to a deficit of about 1.5 trillion pounds ($30 billion).

The increased expenditure partly reflects elevated headline inflation, which was running at an annual 12.8% in February.

Financial reforms under an $8 billion financial reform program signed in March 2024 with the International Monetary Fund have helped Egypt bring inflation down from a peak of 38% in September 2023.

The IMF this month approved the disbursement of $1.2 billion to Egypt after its fourth review of the program.

The new budget targets a primary surplus of 795 billion pounds, equal to 4% of GDP, up from the 3.5% primary surplus originally targeted in the 2024/25 budget.

The IMF granted the government a waiver in the fourth review after the surplus came in 0.5% of GDP lower than Egypt's earlier commitment.

In its third review in June, the IMF praised Egypt for its "strict control of spending".

The new budget also lowers public debt to 82.9% of GDP from an expected 92% in 2024/25, the cabinet statement said.

The cabinet said 732.6 billion pounds in spending in the new budget would be allocated for subsidies, grants and social benefits, an increase of 15.2%.

The budget increases commodities and bread subsidies by 20% to 160 billion pounds. It will also include 75 billion pounds to subsidize petroleum products, 75 billion pounds to subsidize electricity and 3.5 billion pounds to subsidize natural gas deliveries to households, the statement added.