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Saudi Coffee Company, Culinary Arts Commission Sign Agreement to Preserve Heritage

The Saudi Coffee Company signs a cooperation agreement with the Culinary Arts Commission to promote and preserve Saudi Arabia’s unique and diverse culinary heritage. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Saudi Coffee Company signs a cooperation agreement with the Culinary Arts Commission to promote and preserve Saudi Arabia’s unique and diverse culinary heritage. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Coffee Company, Culinary Arts Commission Sign Agreement to Preserve Heritage

The Saudi Coffee Company signs a cooperation agreement with the Culinary Arts Commission to promote and preserve Saudi Arabia’s unique and diverse culinary heritage. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Saudi Coffee Company signs a cooperation agreement with the Culinary Arts Commission to promote and preserve Saudi Arabia’s unique and diverse culinary heritage. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Saudi Coffee Company announced Thursday the signing of a cooperation agreement with the Culinary Arts Commission to promote and preserve Saudi Arabia’s unique and diverse culinary heritage.

The agreement will help promote Saudi Arabia’s coffee product as one rooted in the past, present and future of Saudi society.

It will celebrate Saudi Arabia’s coffee heritage, support the development of the national coffee industry and empower local talents.

The company is a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund established to transform Saudi Arabia’s Coffea Arabica into a global product.

“The Saudi Coffee Company is ramping up efforts to be a pioneer in developing the coffee industry in Saudi and celebrating coffee heritage with the Culinary Arts Commission,” Saudi Coffee Company CEO Raja al-Harbi said.

He stressed that the agreement is a major step that will help the company communicate its values and message to the public.

Mayada Badr, CEO of the Culinary Arts Commission, said: “Our cooperation agreement with Saudi Coffee Company aligns with our mission to share the richness of our culinary arts and traditions with the world. “

This agreement will further enhance the Kingdom’s long-standing legacy of coffee growing, underscoring the Company’s distinctive product, Badr added.

The terms of the agreement include plans to work across multiple platforms including content creation, sponsorship, marketing and merchandising opportunities to market Saudi Arabia’s coffee beans more widely.

It provides for collaborative work between the commission and the company in several areas, such as a program to develop a media library and local culinary arts stories and the designing and marketing of tourism routes for coffee plantations.

It will support Saudi coffee events and festivals, issue licenses to Saudi coffee experts, encourage local production, promote the company’s products in digital shops specializing in Saudi culinary arts, and set standards for the processing of coffee beans.

The Saudi Coffee Company’s vision is to ensure that the national coffee industry is enabled along its entire value chain, from bean to cup.

It will play a vital role in developing sustainable coffee production in Saudi Arabia’s southern region, home to the world-famous Coffea Arabica.

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Separated by LA Wildfires, a Happy Reunion for Some Pets, Owners

Serena Null is reunited with her cat Domino, who was burned in the Eaton Fire, at Pasadena Humane, an animal shelter in Pasadena, California, on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
Serena Null is reunited with her cat Domino, who was burned in the Eaton Fire, at Pasadena Humane, an animal shelter in Pasadena, California, on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
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Separated by LA Wildfires, a Happy Reunion for Some Pets, Owners

Serena Null is reunited with her cat Domino, who was burned in the Eaton Fire, at Pasadena Humane, an animal shelter in Pasadena, California, on January 17, 2025. (AFP)
Serena Null is reunited with her cat Domino, who was burned in the Eaton Fire, at Pasadena Humane, an animal shelter in Pasadena, California, on January 17, 2025. (AFP)

When Serena Null saw the flames roaring toward her family home in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena, she ran to find her pet Domino, but the cat eluded her grasp.

"We could see the fire from the front door, and so we just didn't have enough time, and we had to leave him," the 27-year-old Null said.

The ferocious blaze reduced her mother-in-law's house to ashes, and a search of the blackened rubble the following day proved fruitless. Null feared she would never see her green-eyed friend again.

But on Friday, to her amazement, she and Domino were reunited.

"I just was so relieved and just so happy that he was here," a tearful Null told AFP outside the NGO Pasadena Humane, where Domino -- suffering singed paws, a burnt nose and a high level of stress -- had been taken after being rescued.

Domino is one of several hundred pets brought to the center as the Eaton fire roared through Altadena, forcing thousands of people to flee their homes in such a rush that many left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Pasadena Humane was accustomed to dealing with crises, but the sudden explosion in demand was without precedent.

"We've never had to take 350 at once in one day before," said the center's Kevin McManus. "It's been really overwhelming."

- Search and rescue -

Many animals were delivered by their owners, who had lost their homes and had to find temporary housing for pets while they themselves stayed in hotels or shelters.

But others were brought by rescue workers and volunteers. The center says on its website that when it receives a report of a pet left behind, it sends "search and rescue teams as quickly as possible in areas that are safe to enter."

The center opened up as much space as it could to accommodate the influx, even placing some pets in offices.

And it was not just dogs and cats, McManus said. There were species rarely seen in an animal shelter -- like a pony, which spent a night in the center.

More than 10 days after the fires began raging through Los Angeles, the center still houses some 400 animals, including rabbits, turtles, lizards and birds, including a huge green, red and blue macaw.

Many of the pets' owners, still without permanent housing, come to the center to visit their animal friends -- people like Winston Ekpo, who came to see his three German shepherds, Salt, Pepper and Sugar.

As firefighters in the area make progress, many animal owners are able to come and recover their pets, tears of sadness turning to tears of joy.

- Back home -

The center's website posts photos of recovered animals, including information on the time and place where they were rescued.

McManus said some 250 pets have so far been returned to their owners.

One of them, curiously, was Bombon, who had actually been lost long before the fires.

The Chihuahua mix went missing from its Altadena home in November, said 23-year-old Erick Rico.

He had begun to resign himself to never seeing Bombon again.

Then one day a friend told him he had seen a picture on the Pasadena Humane website that caught his attention.

When Rico saw it, he was so excited he couldn't sleep that night -- "it looked exactly like him," he said -- and he arrived at the center early the following morning.

When he saw his owners, Bombon "started crying a lot, wagging his tail and everything. He was very, very happy."

After the painful days of uncertainty, Rico too finally felt relief. "Now I'm just happy that he's back home."