The Buraidah Dates Carnival, a prime marketing event in the Qassim Region, is facilitated by the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture and managed by the National Center for Palms and Dates. This event stands as a significant commercial hub, drawing in over a thousand vehicles each day, brimming with tons of dates ready for sale and distribution.
These dates, transported in vast quantities, often find their way to a dedicated export area that spans 15,000 square meters. Here, they are meticulously packaged and subsequently shipped to various destinations, including local markets within the Kingdom, and more than 100 countries across the Americas, Europe, and East Asia, as well as to fellow Arab and Gulf nations.
With an impressive yield of over 390,000 tons of dates annually, the region’s farmers are on a quest to exceed this production level. They aim to plant over two million new palm trees, which will bolster output and align with the objectives of the Saudi Vision 2030 by enhancing non-oil revenue streams.
The export facility at Buraidah Dates City serves as a pivotal node for the distribution of dates, not only domestically but also internationally. Every day, more than 500 trucks loaded with over 50 different varieties of dates depart from this location, dispersing them across the Kingdom’s provinces and to specialized factories for sorting, packaging, and further processing. In adherence to stringent export criteria and quality assurance benchmarks, a portion of these dates is processed to meet the exacting standards demanded by international markets.