When a crop shipment reaches the sorting station, the owner needs a clear answer by the end of the day. How many kilos can we actually sell, at what grade, from which batch, and at what cost? This is what the ToDoOps team works on with Saudi agricultural businesses: one management system that brings together purchasing, inventory, packing, sales and accounting, so every department sees the same number. You can read about how we implement Odoo for Saudi businesses before going further.

The benefit starts with carefully defined units of measure and with batches that follow each item from receipt to delivery. Purchasing, pricing and customer follow-up then improve, because they rest on recorded figures rather than scattered estimates.

Managing Crops in Odoo: Why Units of Measure and Batches Matter

Saudi Arabia’s date production in 2024 was about 1.923 million tonnes (1,923 thousand tonnes), up 1% from 2023, according to the General Authority for Statistics. The figure covers Saudi date production specifically. It is useful context for the volumes this sector handles. At those volumes, the difference between a kilo, a tonne, a carton and a retail pack comes up every day at receiving, sorting and selling.

How Do You Set Up Units of Measure and Packaging in Odoo?

According to the Odoo 19 documentation, Odoo lets you enable units of measure and packagings. A product has a stock unit, packagings for sale, and a purchase unit that is set through the vendor pricelist. Purchase units must belong to the same category, so you can buy from a supplier in one unit and hold stock in another, with conversions handled automatically at receipt and delivery.

Changing the unit is a calculation. The actual weight of the crop and the assessment of its quality remain operational steps at receiving and sorting, and the warehouse team records the result in the system. It is wise for management, finance and the warehouse to agree on each product’s units and packagings before the first receipt.

Batch and Expiry Tracking in Odoo: From the Pack Back to Its Source

Batches in Odoo are tied to receiving, storage and shipping. If a box comes back from a customer, you can trace it to its batch and see when it was received, where it was stored and when it shipped. Expiry dates are entered from the physical labels after they have been checked. You can then use FEFO (first expiry, first out, based on the removal date) to order picking across the locations and batches eligible for reservation. Depending on the setup, the removal date may come before the expiry date. Agricultural quality inspection itself stays with your team, and its result is recorded on the batch.

Worked Example: From 1,000 kg Received to 184 Packs

This is a hypothetical example to explain the idea. It is not a client result. A station receives 1,000 kg of crop. After manual sorting, 80 kg is classified outside sellable stock, leaving 920 kg sellable. Packed in 5 kg packs, the output is 184 full packs.

The 8% figure belongs to this example only. It is not a national benchmark and not something Odoo calculates. The 80 kg could be a grade that suits another customer, material for reprocessing, or a by-product, so it does not automatically mean a cash loss. The packing and movement entries also need an agreed unit, an agreed packaging and a defined process. They do not turn 1,000 into 920 by themselves.

The daily benefit is clear. The owner knows the grade available from each batch, purchasing knows the actual inputs, and finance knows the recorded cost. You can answer a customer’s request from the stock that has actually been graded, and decide on re-sorting or packing on a clear basis.

Crops, Irrigation and Sensors: How Do We Define the Scope?

We implement Odoo to manage the farm business cycle: purchasing, inventory, sales and accounting. Harvest records, crop data, irrigation data, sensors and agronomy advice need additional design, defined with you according to your actual cycle. We decide what stays in your field-management and irrigation tools and what data they exchange with the management system.

To see which applications fall within this cycle, review Odoo apps. Examples of activities close to yours are on the industries page.

What Determines the Cost of Implementing Odoo for Agricultural Businesses?

It depends on the number of products and their packagings, the number of locations and warehouses, and the state of your current data. If you want a first picture of the budget, the ToDoOps calculators are an optional tool for estimating implementation cost and potential savings. You can also contact us directly if your scope needs a discussion.

Start with One Cycle Before the Whole Farm

We recommend that the first cycle cover one product and one season or one batch: receiving, then packing, then delivery. Once the team sees the numbers reconcile, the scope expands to other products and locations.

To understand how operations connect, try Odoo interactively. It is a guided simulation with hypothetical data for a sales and inventory flow. It is not a full experience of a farm system.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Odoo suitable for a small farm? The test is the workflow, not the size of the farm. If you buy inputs, sell by grade or pack, and need to know cost and stock, there is something worth organising. The scope depends on the number of products, locations and users.

Do we need a separate farm management system? If you already use specialised tools for irrigation, sensors or field records, the data you need can be connected to Odoo once the exchanged data is defined. Odoo remains the centre for management, inventory and finance.

References

  • Odoo 19 documentation, the units of measure and packagings page, and the lots and expiration dates page: reference for configuring purchase, sales and conversion units, and for batch tracking.

Next Step

Once you know the sellable quantity in each batch, purchasing, pricing and follow-up decisions get easier. Start by getting to know the ToDoOps solution for Odoo, and if you want a view of the budget, try the implementation calculators. Contact us to walk through the cycle of one product, and we will define a starting point that links receiving, packing and delivery.