Saudi Arabia's leading supermarket chain has broken the country's strict taboo on women working in public with a pilot programme of women cashiers, a company official said.

Panda hypermarkets has put 16 Saudi women to work at one store in Jeddah to test the concept.

"The women, compared to men, are really hard workers," Panda spokesman Tarik Ismail was quoted as saying in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

"If everything goes okay, then we will expand the programme (in) the kingdom," he said.

Ismail said the company has been quiet about the move due to the sensitivity of the issue.

A conservative Islamic educator has already called for a boycott of Panda, but it is not yet clear whether that has had any impact, said the report.

Operating more than 100 retail stores across the country, the United Azizia Panda Company, owned by publicly listed foods giant Savola, already employs women sales clerks in its hypermarkets in Dubai in the UAE, according to the report. – TradeArabia News Service