Economic Analysis of the Impact of Waste on the Production and Consumption of Dates in Saudi Arabia

The goal of this study was to determine how the loss of dates affected food security in Saudi Arabia from 2000 to 2021. The researchers achieved this by using food security indicators, economic equations to quantify agricultural resource losses, and econometric analyses to develop a partial adjustment model. The results show that dates are considered a self-sufficient crop as well as an export crop, as the state resorts to exporting the surplus instead of storing it for local consumption. During the study period, there was an increase in the period of sufficiency in date production for local consumption and the period of coverage of imports for local consumption. In 2000, the volume of dates lost increased by approximately 131.22%. The total loss of land and water resources reached 31,918.4 hectares and 324.759 million cubic meters, respectively. The value of the partial adjustment coefficient (λ) indicates that about 81.1% of the imbalance in the equilibrium between the actual and equilibrium levels is adjusted within one year. Loss is considered one of the most important factors that determine food security for dates, in addition to the total value of loans financed to date factories, the total population, and the level of technological progress in the marketing and storage of dates. It was found that a change of 10% in these variables leads to a change in food security for dates of (−2.37%), 0.07, (−15.33%), and 0.58%, respectively, and the adjusted coefficient of determination was estimated at 0.93. This study recommends the following: (1) expanding the use of modern technologies for date post-harvest transportation and storage, and (2) increasing support and loans allocated to date factories to increase warehouses for cooling and storage to accommodate the increase in production and surplus consumption.