Saleh Al-Zahrani
JEDDAH — The Saudi Grains Organization (SAGO) will be completely privatized within the next 12 months, its chairman and Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Bin Abdulmohsen Al-Fadli has said.
The privatization of the organization was decided by the Council of Ministers under recently.
Al-Fadli was talking during a special function in Jeddah on Sunday to open new expansion projects of the organization.
He said the government is subsidizing cereals with more than SR3 billion annually and added that new extensions and branches for the organization will soon be opened in the Eastern Province.
"The ministry is attempting to increase the storage capacity of grain silos by fivefolds and to double the grain output," he said.
Director General of the organization, Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz Al-Faris said SAGO has recently opened a flour mill in Al-Kharj with a daily capacity of 600 ton of wheat.
Earlier, storage mills with a capacity of 120,000 metric ton in Jazan and a flour mill producing 600 ton a day were opened.
Al-Faris said the Jeddah mills cost more than SR332 million and have a combined capacity of 140,000 metric ton.
