Saudi Arabia coffee legacy percolates through the ages - in pictures

Growing beans in the country's south-western region of Jizan is more than just a profession, it is a family tradition passed down from generation to generation

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  Farah Al Malki, 90, and his grandson Mansour, 11, harvest Khawlani coffee beans at their farm in Saudi Arabia's south-western region of Jizan. All photos: AFP

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  Mr Al Malki has a long history with coffee, which spread from Ethiopia to Yemen and then to the rest of the Middle East around the 15th century. "My father inherited it from his grandfathers, and I took over and passed it down to my sons and then on to my grandchildren," he says.

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  Jizan is known for its red Khawlani coffee beans, often blended with cardamom and saffron to give a yellowish hue of coffee — locally known as ghawa — and a taste markedly different from the bitter black liquid drunk elsewhere in the Middle East and in the West. It remains an integral part of Saudi culture, so much so that the government has designated 2022 as 'The Year of Saudi Coffee'.

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  "The biggest issues we used to have were the lack of water and support," says Mr Malki. But with the kingdom's desire to diversify its economy away from oil, alongside a social shift to transform the country's ultra-conservative image and open up to visitors and investors, the government last month began a campaign to promote its coffee. It instructed all restaurants and cafes to use the term "Saudi coffee" instead of Arabic coffee.

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  Saudi Aramco, the largely state-owned oil company, announced plans to establish a coffee centre in Jizan using "advanced irrigation techniques to improve agricultural capacity". By the end of 2021, the kingdom had 400,000 coffee trees on 600 farms across the country, producing about 800 tonnes of coffee a year. That is a fraction of what Ethiopia produces, but Saudi Arabia plans to plant 1.2 million Khawlani trees by 2025.

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  Mr Malki has nine sons, all of whom take part in the coffee industry, ranging from agriculture and packaging to transportation and marketing. On the field every day is his son Ahmed, 42, left, who like his father is dressed in traditional farmer's clothing. He says he has an intimate knowledge of Khawlani coffee beans, explaining: "All farms are organic and free of chemicals."

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  They produce about 2.5 tonnes of coffee beans a year, selling for between $27-$40 a kilogram.

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  Saudi Arabia has sought to include its cultivation of Khawlani coffee on the list of "intangible cultural heritage of humanity" maintained by the UN cultural agency, Unesco. This, Ahmed says, would be a dream come true.

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  "It will help in supporting farmers and preserving coffee trees as well as attracting foreign investors to the region," he says. "I hope to pass this on to my sons and their sons, and pray it be a source of livelihood for them."

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