In another effort to diversify the Saudi economy, there is a movement to start marketing olives both inside and outside the country. Arab News reports on the second ‘Olive Festival’ being held in Sakaka, in northern Jouf Province. Up til now, Saudi-grown olives have tended to stay in the area in which they are grown. I found another piece that says the Saudis are considering building an entirely new city dedicated to olive production, to be known by the name ‘Al-Zaytoun’ (‘olive’) in Jouf. I’m not sure that even northern Saudi Arabia has quite the right climate for massive olive production (where will the water come from?), but I guess we’ll find out.
Currently, the Saudi olive market is dominated by Lebanese and Tunisian olives and oils. You can find olive oils from just about any country producing it in the various Saudi marketplaces, however.
Investment in olive sought
Abdulaziz Abdulwahid | Arab NewsSAKAKA: Al-Jouf Gov. Prince Fahd bin Badr opened the second Olive Festival in Sakaka city on Saturday. The event was marked by the launch of an olive investment company.
“The festival will help in marketing Saudi products abroad,” said Prince Fahd hoping it would attract local and foreign investors to the region. “We welcome and encourage businessmen wishing to come to the region to invest in olive and other agricultural products,” he added.
Prince Fahd said the event would be a good opportunity for farmers to sell their produce. He recalled that during the first olive festival last year, olive sales reached more than SR10 million.
“Before the olive festivals, harvests used to remain with farmers. Now they have a great opportunity to market their produce,” the prince said.
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December:01:2008 - 18:28
Here is an interesting article, you can just skip to about the last paragraphs where the writer talks about the agriculture properties of Al Jawf. The article still holds some new information for me about the history of the Arabian peninsula, I might dig into it later.
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199802/unsung.crossroads.htm
I do agree though, the probability of mass producing olives sounds far fetched in terms of water supply, but I think finding out the potential rain volume per year might be a good place to look. Having a historic oasis helps Al Jawf, but for example having small dams would help them increase the water supply for such a large plan.
December:01:2008 - 21:15
Thanks for the link. ARAMCO World has a lot of very interesting articles. They should consider republishing the best ones in a book format, IMO.
Rain catchment might be enough and, relative to most of the KSA, Al-Jouf certain can be considered ‘wet’. I’d really like to see this endeavor succeed, but it looks uphill to me.