Saudi Olives

Overview

When we look at Saudi Arabia’s greatest natural produce, its olives are perhaps the greatest asset unknown outside the Kingdom.

Olives and their oil are not just valuable commodities, but imbue a magic to a region and its growers. From the groves of Tuscany to the ancient hills of Greece, the olive tree is something of majesty and mystery and has captivated the imagination for millennia.

We have been inspired by the huge branding and development opportunity to draw-up a longer-term strategic plan to harness this Saudi resource for the benefit of the country, its people and its standing in the world.

Al Jouf is the centre of olive production in Saudi Arabia and indeed will be the home of the largest olive oil mill in Asia. Our proposal centers on building the Saudi Olives brand across verticals.

Brief

March Hare created a bold strategy to preserve ancient traditions, embrace the most futuristic agricultural machines, encapsulate the Al Jouf region and its produce in a new brand and create a series of products based on the olives and their oil.

We also seek inspiration from the producers in Tuscany and Greece, where olives are central to regional identity and prestige.

Furthermore, we are developing a new concept cafe restaurant using the finest olive oil and olives as its core product. The first concept store will open at the Al Jouf farm and create a template model to grow the brand through the Kingdom.

Objective

Develop an artisan program in Al Jouf to create a “high end” line of oils that can form the basis of a line of elite olive oil products and aim to be a world-beating product. For the mass market, build the Saudi Olives brand with the same spirit of benchmark quality that the Roses of Taif are seen in internationally.

Use the luxury line to build the broader brand for global export, and as the basis for the new cafe restaurant concept. Also develop a line of luxury products both as oil and whole olives to sell into the GCC hospitality sector and aviation F+B sector.

We believe this process will create huge financial value and significantly increase the value of the Saudi olive farms, and add to national prestige.

Strategy

Survey existing branding around Saudi olives and their oil products. Compare with best practice in Tuscany and Greece. Devise and implement a strategy for the launch of the luxury oil and whole olive lines and brand that line.

Use this luxury brand as the marquee to build the wider Saudi Olive brand and consider global promotion opportunities to increase exports.

Develop a signature restaurant and cafe experience built around olives and their oil. The menu will include simple dressed salads, olive based garnishes such as tapenade, signature olive breads and olive based spreads.

This will be a global first popular luxury concept, and can stock the branded luxury products we develop. We aspire to create the “Bateel of the olive groves”.

Building the Brand

Fundamentally our role is to build a core Saudi Olive brand to align it with the groves in Italy, Greece and Spain. For a global audience we need to assure them of quality, and for a local audience we need to assure them that Saudi Olives and their oil are as good - if not better - than European production.

We will do this through education, promotion and through creating a luxury line that will become the world’s most sought-after olive oil product.

This luxury product will be strategically placed into Saudi state visits, major events and global hospitality brands. Furthermore, we will seek state support to subsidize its sale to overseas prestige outlets whilst the brand becomes better known.

Local, regional and national demand for quality olives and their products is extremely high, and this should form the basis of us building a range of brands to bring pride to the new global Saudi Arabia.

Carbon Offset and Global Environment Zeitgeist

The growth of trees is naturally a key element to carbon offset and global environmental strategies. As a result we believe there should be a strategy to discuss with the Saudi Government a funding program to support further planting.

As well as this we can also use this as part of the Kingdom’s work towards a carbon-neutral future, and achieving the aims of Vision 2030.

We understand that certain scientists are developing ways of improving carbon capture by olive tree growth, and can manage the discussions with these experts to bring these techniques in trials to Al Jouf.

Any agriculture business needs to consider carbon offset opportunities to its income stream, and we believe this can be a very strong suit to building the Saudi Olive brand.

The Global Supply Chain: Luxury and Mass Market

There are several levels of sales to consider developing. Naturally we will aim to create the best luxury line, but we can also build out the mass market sales where the product quality is more globally standardized.

We will as part of our studies consider profit margins to be achieved across this range, both with extra virgin products and final press products.

European growers often buy from different national producers and market the product as their own. We may be able to import cheaper oils for mass market sales and charge a premium once our wider brand is built.

In order to build a sustainable long term business we want to consider all levels of the marketplace.

The Saudi Olive Foundation

The Saudi Olive Foundation is a new charitable project to maintain regional olive production methods and embrace and establish best practice new methods and also develop partnerships internationally.

The Saudi Olive Foundation will sponsor a new generation of Saudi farmers to build the skills they need to enter the agriculture sector.

Emblematic of peace, the Foundation can also be tailored to incorporate the Chairman and his family’s ideas for areas of focus and development.

Projects in partnership with global agriculture projects and charities can be developed for strategic benefit. Environmental projects can also be developed under the Foundation’s banner.

Heritage and Local Support

March Hare have become experts in the cultivation of local heritage projects in Saudi Arabia, and the Al Jouf proposal gives us the opportunity to connect with the local community on several levels. We will create a local activation program to develop further local links in Al Jouf, necessary as we anticipate the workforce growing exponentially.

We also see huge potential to activate heritage projects related to historic olive growing in Saudi and accessing government schemes to fund these programs and develop those historic skills.

The Saudi Olive Luxury Products

March hare created a luxury branded line of products owned by a Saudi conglomerate group, using Saudi olive products. They include but not be limited to:

• Extra virgin oils
• Extra virgin spreads
• OIives for eating

Both supermarket-sized products and also small sealed single-use items for hospitality and hotels and airlines

The branding will leverage the most successful Italian and Greek brands with a Saudi flair, still aimed at an international audience. In this way, we aim to capture both the local and international artisan markets.

This luxury goods line will be used as the basis for the Olive Grove restaurants and also to increase the prestige generally of the Saudi production.

Tourism

We want to build Al Jouf as a bespoke tourist destination, also open to Saudi and GCC youth projects to visit and get involved with olive production.

This can be a marquee project for Al Jouf province, building its brand and ultimately building the brand value of the farms.