News - Yemen: Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation in Sana'a revealed the local production of dates and the quantity imported from abroad annually.

The statistic stated that the local production of dates amounted to more than 27 thousand tons annually, while Yemen imports more than 46 thousand tons of dates, with a value of more than seven billion riyals.

A source in the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation indicated, Wednesday, that the most prominent beneficiary of the bill for importing dates is Saudi Arabia, and the Yemeni farmer is the first with these amounts.

The source confirmed that more than two million date palms in Yemen can cover the import bill if investment and attention to municipal dates are made.

The source explained that the US-Saudi aggression and its tools caused the burning and destruction of nearly one million palm trees in Hajjah and Hodeidah, pointing out that the siege on fuel led to farmers’ reluctance to farm, and caused a significant decline in agricultural crops.

Saudi Arabia, backed by the US and its other regional allies, launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015. The eight years of war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure. Yemeni people are facing malnutrition, hunger, and famine, which have increased risks of disease and starvation.

As part of its economic war, the US-Saudi aggression worked to drain about 97% of the Yemeni state’s resources, either by controlling them militarily such as oil and gas sources, freezing Yemeni foreign assets and transferring them to mercenaries and financing coalition operations, or imposing siege on the vital port of Hodeidah and the most important port after Aden, which is still in the grip of Sana’a and out of control of the aggression.