JAZAN — The activities of the International Forum for the Sustainability of Saudi Coffee concluded here on Sunday with proposing a day dedicated to celebrating coffee in the Kingdom and instituting an annual award for the best efforts that have been exerted for the promotion of the Saudi coffee. The two-day forum was organized by the Ministry of Culture at the Grand Millennium Jazan. The forum coincided with the International Coffee Day, which falls on Oct. 1, with the objective to promote and celebrate coffee as a beverage with wide variety of events and activities to mark the occasion. The forum highlighted the significance of Saudi coffee, its manufacture and sustainability. Wrapping up the two-day activities, the forum made a number of recommendations after discussing the relevant concepts in this regard. These recommendations include the need for the Kingdom's accession to the International Coffee Organization to exchange experiences and enhance the presence of Saudi coffee at the global arena; collaborating with international organizations related to coffee research to enhance cooperation in the field of research and innovation; organizing an annual international forum for Saudi coffee to discuss the advantages, achievements, challenges and aspirations in partnership with the local community, in addition to considering the establishment of an electronic magazine for Saudi coffee. Addressing the forum, Nayef Al-Mutairi, project coordinator of the Agency of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture for agriculture in the Rural Development Program and the FAO, revealed the project to rehabilitate the agricultural terraces, covering an area of 975 hectares with more than 9000 direct and indirect beneficiaries of the terraces for several types of crops, including the coffee crop in the southwestern regions. This is through making available water for irrigation and the application of rainwater harvesting techniques that contribute to solving water scarcity and making maximum use of every drop of water, in addition to distributing high-quality coffee seedlings free of charge while ensuring their care until the production stage. In his speech, Radi Al-Faridi, deputy director General of the National Research and Development Center for Sustainable Agriculture, highlighted that coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world after oil. The value of the global coffee market reached $102 billion in 2020, he said while noting that the coffee market is expected to continue to grow, reaching a rate of 4.28 percent during the period from 2022 to 2026. The last session of the forum concluded with a working paper presented by Ghadeer Fallatah, researcher at the Saudi Food and Drug Authority, in which she stated that about 43 percent of Saudi adults consume caffeine at a rate of less than 300 mg per day. "There has been steady growth of commercial activities related to cafes, as the Kingdom ranked 11th globally in 2019 in importing tea products, 13th in importing coffee products, while it ranked 14th in importing chocolate products," she added.
