The sixth meeting on palm trees and dates, organized yesterday by the Dates Committee of the Al-Qassim Chamber of Commerce, addressed the crisis of a shortage of foreign workers—particularly those with the required experience and skills— highlighting the resulting problems and risks that threaten the date palm cultivation sector and could lead to farmers suffering heavy losses as the harvest season approaches without any tangible returns or profits.
Abdulrahman Al-Khudair, Acting Secretary-General of the Al-Qassim Chamber of Commerce, said that the meeting with stakeholders and experts was held amid extremely difficult circumstances facing farmers as a result of the crisis they are experiencing regarding the availability of necessary and trained labor in the job market, noting that the Chamber will harness all its resources and make every effort to address this problem and devise fundamental solutions so that it does not recur every season, thereby serving businesspeople in this vital sector that supports the national economy and contributes to its development. He emphasized that the issue of labor for date palm farms is receiving significant attention from the region’s governor and his deputy, who are closely monitoring all current developments and updates regarding the proposed solutions to address the problem.
For his part, Engineer Sultan Al-Thunayan, Chairman of the Dates Committee at the Al-Qassim Chamber of Commerce, noted the importance of joining forces, coordinating positions, and unifying visions to develop appropriate solutions, emphasizing that a collective voice has a greater impact and elicits a stronger response than an individual voice, calling for the implementation of previous agreements, understandings, and decisions regarding the resolution of the labor shortage in the date palm sector and for the prompt provision of the necessary labor to farmers with the support of the Ministry of Agriculture, so that three workers are allocated for every 100 date palms, in accordance with the latest circular issued in this regard.
The meeting, attended by members of the Chamber’s Dates Committee and a number of date producers in the region, discussed the risks of farms being exposed to fires and the spread of diseases caused by the red palm weevil due to a shortage of workers needed for cleaning and pest control, It also addressed the transformation of some date palm farms into fiefdoms controlled by expatriate workers and the difficulty of localizing jobs in the date palm sector due to Saudi youth’s reluctance to work in these professions, He emphasized the need for flexibility in determining which nationalities are permitted to be recruited, ensuring that they consist of workers specialized in this sector.
