Al-Kharj Governorate in the Riyadh Region is classified among the largest sources of date production in the Kingdom, with its annual production capacity exceeding 90,400 tons of dates, according to statistics from the National Center for Palms and Dates.

An annual economic share estimated at 723 million riyals

The economic share of the annual date production in the governorate is estimated at 723 million riyals, as the sector provides more than 6,000 seasonal job opportunities during the harvest and marketing season. The 'Khalas Al-Kharj' variety is the most prominent and most famous locally and globally, followed by Al-Suqai, Nabut Saif, Al-Safri, Al-Shishi, Al-Hilali, Al-Barhi, and several other varieties.

The total number of palm trees in Al-Kharj reached about 1.5 million out of 37.6 million palm trees in the Kingdom, of which about 1.2 million are fruit-bearing, representing about 80.6% of the total palm trees in the governorate. Its palms account for about 3.9% of the Kingdom's total palm trees and about 3.7% of the total fruit-bearing palms nationally.

The Kingdom's total date production reached about 1.92 million tons in 2024, an increase of 1% over the previous year. This makes Al-Kharj's contribution estimated at about 4.7% of the Kingdom's total date production, as the region topped with 436.1 tons during the same year, with the governorate's production representing 20.7% of the total date production of the Riyadh Region.

The governorate hosts a number of factories and facilities specialized in sorting, packaging, and processing dates. Their production lines include vacuum packaging of dates to extend shelf life, manufacturing date paste used in sweets and bakery products, date syrup (honey) as a natural sugar substitute, date vinegar, stuffed dates, and animal feed from date pits.

Annual marketing and promotional events are also organized, most notably the Al-Kharj Dates and Saudi Coffee Festival, which attracted two million visitors during the current year and contributed to injecting about 11 million riyals into the commercial and tourism movement in the governorate, providing more than 2,000 seasonal job opportunities.

The Kingdom led the world in date exports by value, with the value of Saudi date exports in 2025 reaching about 1.93 billion riyals, compared to about 1.7 billion in 2024, an increase of 15.9%, distributed to more than 133 countries around the world, as the Kingdom achieves a self-sufficiency rate of dates exceeding 119%.

The electronic platform 'Tadawul Al-Tamr' (Dates Trading) affiliated with the National Center for Palms and Dates enables connection between farmers, traders, and factories, along with the service of issuing date export certificates and shipment matching, facilitating the access of Al-Kharj's processed products to global markets.