RIYADH: The coffee industry in Saudi Arabia is set to receive a huge boost after the Kingdom’s Cabinet approved the sector joining the International Coffee Agreement.
The move will see the industry join the world’s top producers of the commodity to keep coffee prices high and stable in the market, mainly using export quotas to steer the prices.
Approval for the move comes after Saudi Arabia designated 2022 “The Year of Saudi Coffee” in the wake of local production hitting 1,810 tons in the previous 12 months, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
According to a report by global business analysts Euromonitor International in January 2022, coffee consumption in Saudi Arabia grew by 4 percent per year between 2016 and 2021 and is forecast to increase by a further 5 percent annually up to 2026, reaching an expected consumption of 28,700 tons each year.
In a bid to boost the Kingdom’s coffee production, the Public Investment Fund launched the Saudi Coffee Co., which aims to ramp up production by more than 700 percent within five years.
Saudi Arabia is among the top 10 countries in terms of coffee consumption. According to the SPA report, the Kingdom imports approximately 70,000-90,000 tons of coffee every year and Saudis spend more than SR1 billion (266.3 million) on coffee.
The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture is working to make the Kingdom self-reliant by increasing domestic production and increasing the industry’s contribution to the national gross domestic product.
In order to achieve these goals, the ministry has established a coffee research unit at the Agriculture Research Center of Jazan province. The unit provides guidance to coffee farmers and helps them resolve issues they face in the cultivation and production of good-quality coffee.
The coffee tree is grown in 70 countries worldwide and is an important source of income, with the bean produced in southern Saudi Arabia considered one of the most delicate types.
Moreover, an agreement was signed in 2018 between the Kingdom and the International Fund for Agricultural Development to provide technical assistance to improve the coffee strain.
The ministry also launched the Sustainable Agricultural Rural Development Program to promote coffee cultivation on a large scale.
In the past few years, coffee bean farms in Jazan have been given special attention as support for farmers has increased, and special care has been given to the Khawlani bean, which is one of the world’s finest coffees.
There are currently more than 2,500 Khawlani coffee plantations with a total of approximately 400,000 trees — although current production is mostly consumed locally.
