The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) launched the seventh edition of AlUla Dates Season today as part of Khayrat AlUla Agricultural Season 2026–2027.
The season commenced with the commercial date auction at Al Fursan Village, scheduled to run on weekends through November 15, alongside consumer activities at Al Manshiyah Farmers’ Market from September 18 to 27. The venues provide dedicated spaces for regional farmers, families working in the cottage industry, and artisans to market crops, traditional foods, and palm-leaf crafts directly to visitors.
Date palm cultivation is a historical cornerstone of AlUla, dating back to the first millennium BCE and documented in ancient rock inscriptions at the Jabal Ikmah heritage site. Today, the governorate hosts over 4.2 million date palms across nearly 16,484 hectares, generating an estimated annual yield of 130,000 tons.
The season also showcases ancestral harvesting traditions, including a communal practice of climbing palms with braided rope belts, cutting ripe clusters, and sorting the fruit into handwoven frond baskets, bridging the oasis’s historic agrarian culture with contemporary commercial platforms.
Source: Riyadh Daily