Red Sea Global Launches Red Sea Farm Cooperative to Transform Agricultural Economy in Tabuk

SPA
SPA
TT

Red Sea Global Launches Red Sea Farm Cooperative to Transform Agricultural Economy in Tabuk

SPA
SPA

Red Sea Global (RSG), the developer of the world's most ambitious regenerative projects, has announced the launch of the Red Sea Farms Cooperative (Tamala), which was established through integrated national partnerships between the government, private and non-profit sectors.

Tamala aims to develop a model entity that achieves the Kingdom's orientation to enhance the role of cooperatives in the agricultural sector system. Tamala's board of directors and general assembly consists of 29 members with experience in the agricultural sector and farmers from the local community in the Tabuk region.

Tamala was launched in partnership with Ithmaar Administrative Entrepreneurship Company, Goros Charitable Foundation, and several entities and people in the Red Sea region in the governorates of Al-Wajh, Umluj and Duba in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

Based in Al-Wajh Governorate, Tamala aims to achieve a qualitative agricultural renaissance in the Tabuk region by developing the quality of agricultural products, providing agricultural extension and awareness services to shift to modern agricultural techniques, instead of traditional patterns. It also aims to provide agricultural inputs to farmers according to the latest standards, which contribute to improving agricultural production and farmers' quality of life, SPA reported.

Tamala is based on achieving an ambitious strategy that supports the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030, which will be achieved by adding value to the agricultural sector in the Kingdom by providing and marketing agricultural crops on a large scale.

This contributes to achieving food security in the Kingdom by stabilizing food prices, supporting the rural development economy, and providing many production incentives and raw materials to more than 1,000 factories operating in the fields of food and beverages, which is equivalent to 14% of the number of factories in the Kingdom.



Finland Zoo to Return Giant Pandas to China because they're Too Expensive to Keep

FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
TT

Finland Zoo to Return Giant Pandas to China because they're Too Expensive to Keep

FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)
FILE - Female panda Jin Bao Bao, named Lumi in Finnish, plays in the snow on the opening day of the Snowpanda Resort in Ahtari Zoo, in Ahtari, Finland, Saturday Feb. 17, 2018. (Roni Rekomaa/Lehtikuva via AP), File)

A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain amid declining visitors.
The private Ähtäri Zoo in central Finland some 330 kilometers north of Helsinki said Wednesday on its Facebook page that the female panda Lumi, Finnish for “snow,” and the male panda Pyry, meaning “snowfall,” will return “prematurely” to China later this year, The Associated Press reported.
The panda pair was China’s gift to mark the Nordic nation’s 100 years of independence in 2017, and they were supposed to be on loan until 2033.
But since then the zoo has experienced a number of challenges, including a decline in visitors due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as an increase in inflation and interest rates, the facility said in a statement.
The panda deal between Helsinki and Beijing, a 15-year loan agreement, had been finalized in April 2017 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Finland for talks with Finland's then-President Sauli Niinistö. The pandas arrived in Finland in January 2018.
The Ähtäri Zoo, which specializes in typical northern European animals such as bears, lynxes and wolverines, built a special panda annex at a cost of some 8 million euros ($9 million) in hopes of luring more tourists to the remote nature reserve.
The upkeep of Lumi and Pyry, including a preservation fee to China, cost the zoo some 1.5 million euros annually. The bamboo that giant pandas eat was flown in from the Netherlands.
The Chinese Embassy in Helsinki noted to Finnish media that Beijing had tried to help Ähtäri to solve its financial difficulties by, among things, urging Chinese companies operating in Finland to make donations to the zoo and supporting its debt arrangements.
However, declining visitor numbers combined with drastic changes in the economic environment proved too high a burden for the smallish Finnish zoo. The panda pair will enter into a monthlong quarantine in late October before being shipped to China.
Finland, a country of 5.6 million, was among the first Western nations to establish political ties with China, doing so in 1950. China has presented giant pandas to countries as a sign of goodwill and closer political ties, and Finland was the first Nordic nation to receive them.