SABIC & NCPD Lay Foundation Stone for First Project of “Palm Tree of The Homeland” Program

To promote date crops in the local market, raise production quality and increase exports, SABIC and the National Center for Palm and Dates (NCPD) laid the foundation stone for a comprehensive service center in Madinah under the patronage of Prince Faisal bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, Governor of Madinah, and Eng. Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadli, Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture.

The service center will be established in cooperation with the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (MODON) as the first fruits of the Palm Tree of the Homeland (Nakhlat Watan) program. It will prepare a detailed employment plan to localize at least 50% of its workforce.

The Palm Tree of the Homeland (Nakhlat Watan) program is part of SABIC’s national initiative NusanedTM to support and develop palm trees, dates and agricultural innovation as well as enhance cooperation between public and private sectors. It aims to achieve sustainable development by focusing on increasing production efficiency, reducing costs and raising product quality in line with the objectives of Vision 2030 to make the Kingdom the top exporter of dates in the world.

SABIC will support research and studies related to agriculture and water and motivate farmers to use modern irrigation methods to save natural resources.

Nakhlat Watan was launched in April 2019 to establish specialized centers to serve the dates and palm sector. It seeks to improve agricultural practices and enhance the quality of dates to increase exports to new global markets with competitive prices.