Embracing Global Growth: Saudi Arabia's Date Expanding Global Trade through Alibaba.com

With 1.5 million tons of dates in trade, generating around $2.5 billion and a growth rate surpassing 15% annually with more than 9.5 million palm trees, the global dates market reveals tremendous potential.

Saudi Arabia's dates have more than 300 varieties in terms of sizes, color, texture, sugar content, and many different characteristics of the dates. They don't focus only on the raw material or dates itself. They focus on different products, innovation, and different products as well. To expand the global market the NCPD (National Center of Palm and Dates) started to bring dates companies sell on Alibaba.com and they believe that Alibaba.com can bring opportunities and open the door for them.

According to Mr. Mazzen Jaffar AlQurish, Head of Exporters Qualification and Empowerment, NCPD(National Center of Palm and Dates) , there are around 36 million palm trees, around 1.6 million tons of production, more than 300 varieties of dates, around 123K thousand farms, and more than 157 date manufacturing in Saudi.

From the 21st to 24th of May NCPD brought 23 dates companies to Alibaba.com headquarters to visit the campus and take training classes including e-commerce knowledge sharing, Chinese Gold Supplier success stories learning, and Alibaba.com operation skills studying. Most of the dates companies attending these training classes are already on Alibaba.com. These training classes could help them have better performance on the platform.

Now, let's dive into key insights from a government representative from NCPD:

Interview with Mr. Mazzen Jaffar AlQurish, Head of Exporters Qualification and Empowerment, NCPD (National Center of Palm and Dates)

Q: How significant is the date market globally?

A: With 1.5 million tons of dates in trade, generating around $2.5 billion and a growth rate surpassing 15% annually, the global date market reveals tremendous potential. Saudi Arabia alone has approximately 36 million palm trees, producing 1.6 million tons across 300 varieties, supported by 123,000 farms and over 157 date manufacturers.

Q: Why choose Alibaba.com for exporting dates?

A: Alibaba.com's expansive global reach and proven credibility make it the ideal platform for enhancing international trade. As a strategic long-term partner, Alibaba.com provides invaluable channels, marketing techniques, and expertise indispensable for accessing global markets and driving growth.

Q: How many dates are companies here for this trip and how is their business right now?

A: We have around 23 dates companies with us. Most companies we've brought with us today are the best companies within the Saudi market. In terms of their product they have varieties of products such as date paste, syrup, dates honey, etc. And again, in terms of quality of date, in terms of the value chain, supply chain they are the best ones.

Q: What are your insights on the training trip?

A: We've done a lot of workshops with Alibaba experts in terms of marketing, in terms of e-commerce in how you use the platform, which is the best practice to reach to the global market. And Alibaba.com they were fantastic and very generous in terms of sharing the information with us to use the platform in the best possible way. So that was the first part of the collaboration with Alibaba.com and the workshop.

The second part was actually we visited the best, companies in terms of using Alibaba.com utilizing it to the best possible way. Again, in terms of Skus, in terms of how to take a picture of product, how to utilize the platform, and so on. So we learned a lot from the successful stories for those companies and all the gaps that we have or the challenges that we might face in the future. Let's say we are one step ahead because of obviously Alibaba and the access that Alibaba.com gave to us with those successful stories.

Q: What are your future expectations from the Alibaba.com partnership?

A: After productive collaborations and workshops, we aim to utilize Alibaba.com's best practices and establish a dedicated pavilion for Saudi agricultural companies and date products. The long-term goal is to significantly increase the presence of Saudi date companies on Alibaba.com and leverage the platform for global market success.