Al-Kharj 05 Safar 1448 AH corresponding to July 19, 2026 SPA Al-Kharj Governorate is one of the prominent agricultural governorates in the Kingdom, and enjoys a leading status in the date production sector thanks to its agricultural capabilities, large numbers of palm trees, and variety of cultivars, in addition to an integrated system encompassing production, marketing, and manufacturing. This has contributed to enhancing the governorate's presence among the most important date-producing regions in the Kingdom, and supporting its contribution to achieving food security targets, developing the agricultural sector, and increasing the added value of national products. Al-Kharj Governorate is classified among the largest sources of date production in the Kingdom, with an annual production capacity of about 90,422,596 kilograms, equivalent to approximately 90.4 thousand tons of dates, according to statistics from the National Center for Palms and Dates. The economic share of the annual date production in the governorate is estimated at about 723 million Saudi riyals, while this sector provides more than 6,000 seasonal job opportunities during the harvesting and marketing season. The Al-Kharj Khalas variety is the most prominent and well-known locally and globally, followed by Al-Suqai, Nabut Saif, Al-Safri, Al-Shishi, Al-Hilali, Al-Barhi, and various other cultivars. In support of marketing farmers' products, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture's office in Al-Kharj Governorate has allocated designated sites for date sellers in the central market, and a number of locations and stalls in the governorate, with periodic monitoring and sample collection for analysis to ensure they are free of pesticide residues. On the statistical level, the total number of palm trees in Al-Kharj Governorate reaches 1,476,208 trees, of which 1,189,771 are fruit-bearing, representing about 80.6% of the total palm trees in the governorate, according to data from the National Center for Palms and Dates. Comparing these figures to the national level, the total number of palm trees in the Kingdom exceeds 37.6 million trees, including more than 32 million fruit-bearing trees, according to the Agricultural Statistics Bulletin of 2024 issued by the General Authority for Statistics; Al-Kharj's palm trees represent about 3.9% of the Kingdom's total palms, while fruit-bearing palms in Al-Kharj represent about 3.7% of the national total fruit-bearing palms. The Kingdom's total date production reached about 1.92 million tons in 2024, an increase of 1% from the previous year, making Al-Kharj Governorate's contribution estimated at about 4.7% of the Kingdom's total date production. Riyadh Region topped the Kingdom's regions in date production with 436,112 tons in the same year, making Al-Kharj Governorate's production alone represent about 20.7% of Riyadh Region's total date production. The governorate is witnessing processing industrial activity related to the date sector, hosting a number of factories and facilities specialized in sorting, packaging, and processing dates. Their production lines include vacuum-packed dates to extend shelf life, production of date paste used in sweets and baked goods, date syrup (honey) as a natural sugar substitute, date vinegar, in addition to stuffed dates as a value-added product, and production of animal feed from date pits and dates not meeting human consumption specifications. The "Tadawul Al-Tamr" electronic platform of the National Center for Palms and Dates connects farmers, traders, and factories, along with the service of issuing date export certificates and shipment conformity, facilitating the access of Al-Kharj's processed products to global markets. In the same context, the Kingdom ranked first globally in date exports by value, with the value of Saudi date exports in 2025 reaching about 1.938 billion riyals, compared to about 1.695 billion riyals in 2024, an increase of 15.9%, distributed to more than 133 countries around the world, with the Kingdom achieving a self-sufficiency rate for dates exceeding 119%. Annual marketing and promotional events are organized, most notably the Al-Kharj Date and Saudi Coffee Festival, whose second edition, held between January and February 2026, attracted about two million visitors, contributed to injecting about 11 million riyals into the governorate's commercial and tourism movement, and provided more than 2,000 seasonal job opportunities. // End //16:54 T M 0133