(Bloomberg) – Farm workers hang hand-pollinated trees steadily from the top of towering date palm trees. In just a few days, about 100,000 palms can be fertilized, and the pressure this spring is particularly strong.
Located 250 km (155 miles) northwest of Riyadh, the farm is owned by a company with ties to the Saudi royal family and is undergoing a massive global expansion under the leadership of new CEO Nurtac Afridi.
She hopes Bateel International LLC (also supported by French luxury maker LVMH), triple revenues in cafes and luxury food stores through 2029 to 2029.
The expansion will increase Betel’s store count from its current 200+ globally to more than 500, while Saudi Arabia’s push diversifies its economy outside of oil.
Afridi’s goal is to extend dates outside the Middle East, from New York to Seoul, as a healthy snack.
“We see huge growth potential over the next five years,” said the CEO of Godiva, the luxury chocolate justice, who led the company until last year during his sales growth period, in an interview.
Bateel is at the end of the luxury of the growing fruit market (traditionally a utilitarian staple in the Middle East) and sells exquisite gift boxes stuffed with nuts or covered with chocolate.
Its Mediterranean-inspired gourmet cafe hopes to add a Middle Eastern touch to popular classics, such as jujube-infused balsamic vinegar or sweetened with a thin jujube sauce.
The increasing demand for dates has attracted government notifications and has attracted more attention from Betel, including the Kingdom’s powerful sovereign wealth fund. The Public Investment Fund played a role for the company in 2019, but negotiations never took place.
Afridi said expansion plans could be financed through internal cash flow. She declined to comment on the report of LVMH’s private equity arm LCATTETON, who is considering selling a stake in Betel it acquired in 2014. “L Catterton is a long-term partner and although that’s the decision they made, I think they still see a lot of growth coming to Better.”
The early fruits of Bateel extension drives have been shown. A new store opened in Seoul in November, where customers line up around the block. The company is searching for locations around the world.
The plans also require tripling the amount of date palms on its Saudi plantations and building a new factory in the Kingdom to boost supply. The company has prepared a supply chain for expected growth in its business.
Saudi Arabia produces 3 billion tons per year on the date of its annual output, about half of it exports. The Kingdom’s Wealth Fund launched date-based cola in December as part of its efforts to boost its production and exports.
Betel’s roots date back to 80 years, when Abdulrahman al Sudairi first planted a date tree in the area. His sister Hussa Bint Ahmed Al Sudairi married Abdulaziz, the founder of Modern Saudi Arabia, the grandmother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
To be sure, the company has no formal ties to the Saudi government and is driving its growth plans without state support.
Betel’s farm challenged the common perception of Saudi Arabia as an arid desert. A dam built by a company collects rainwater from nearby mountainous areas and directs it to replenish the underground aquifers, a crucial step towards sustainable agriculture and prevents groundwater consumption.
Now, it depends on the rapid expansion of these farms. When she investigated the huge farmland, Afridi said: “We need more dates because our sales have grown 25% per year.”
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