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.



First Radioactive Rhino Horns to Curb Poaching in South Africa

A sedated rhinoceros lies unconscious as professor James Larkin (R) from the University of the Witwatersrand's Radiation and Health Physics Unit (RHPU) uses a can of identification spray (DataDot) after carefully implanting dosed and calculated radioisotopes into its horns along with other Rhisotope Project members at an undisclosed location in the Waterbury UNESCO biosphere in Mokopane on June 25, 2024. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP)
A sedated rhinoceros lies unconscious as professor James Larkin (R) from the University of the Witwatersrand's Radiation and Health Physics Unit (RHPU) uses a can of identification spray (DataDot) after carefully implanting dosed and calculated radioisotopes into its horns along with other Rhisotope Project members at an undisclosed location in the Waterbury UNESCO biosphere in Mokopane on June 25, 2024. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP)
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First Radioactive Rhino Horns to Curb Poaching in South Africa

A sedated rhinoceros lies unconscious as professor James Larkin (R) from the University of the Witwatersrand's Radiation and Health Physics Unit (RHPU) uses a can of identification spray (DataDot) after carefully implanting dosed and calculated radioisotopes into its horns along with other Rhisotope Project members at an undisclosed location in the Waterbury UNESCO biosphere in Mokopane on June 25, 2024. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP)
A sedated rhinoceros lies unconscious as professor James Larkin (R) from the University of the Witwatersrand's Radiation and Health Physics Unit (RHPU) uses a can of identification spray (DataDot) after carefully implanting dosed and calculated radioisotopes into its horns along with other Rhisotope Project members at an undisclosed location in the Waterbury UNESCO biosphere in Mokopane on June 25, 2024. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP)

South African scientists on Tuesday injected radioactive material into live rhino horns to make them easier to detect at border posts in a pioneering project aimed at curbing poaching.

The country is home to a large majority of the world's rhinos and as such is a hotspot for poaching driven by demand from Asia, where horns are used in traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic effect.

At the Limpopo rhino orphanage in the Waterberg area, in the country's northeast, a few of the thick-skinned herbivores grazed in the low savannah.

James Larkin, director of the University of the Witwatersrand's radiation and health physics unit who spearheaded the initiative, told AFP he had put "two tiny little radioactive chips in the horn" as he administered the radioisotopes on one of the large animals' horns.

The radioactive material would "render the horn useless... essentially poisonous for human consumption" added Nithaya Chetty, professor and dean of science at the same university.

The dusty rhino, put to sleep and crouched on the ground, did not feel any pain, Larkin said.

The radioactive material's dose was so low it would not impact the animal's health or the environment in any way, he said.

In February the environment ministry said that, despite government efforts to tackle the illicit trade, 499 of the giant mammals were killed in 2023, mostly in state-run parks. This represents an 11 percent increase over the 2022 figures.

Twenty live rhinos in total would be part of the pilot Rhisotope project whereby they would be administered a dose "strong enough to set off detectors that are installed globally" at international border posts originally installed "to prevent nuclear terrorism", a pleased Larkin said, sporting a green hat and a khaki shirt.

Border agents often have handheld radiation detectors which can detect contraband in addition to thousands of radiation detectors installed at ports and airports, the scientists said.