Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia has overcome the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic with strong supply chains and abundance of foodstuffs, Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Eng. Abdul Rahman Al-Fadhli has said.

The volume of the Kingdom’s agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) amounts to SR61.4 billion, equivalent to four percent of the non-oil GDP at constant prices.

Al-Fadhli said that the food security strategy in the Kingdom has become successful after overcoming the disruption in the supply chains that affected the food supply globally at a time when the majority of countries in the world suffered from the adverse impact of the pandemic.

“Despite the severity of the corona pandemic crisis and its severe impact on the food supply chains in the world, the Kingdom has surpassed this through the strength and durability of its food and agricultural security, which enabled it to overcome the crisis. Today, the Kingdom has the largest storage capacity for wheat and flour in the Middle East with more than 3.3 million ton,” he said.

Al-Fadhli stressed that currently the Kingdom has achieved high levels of self-sufficiency, reliability and quality with regard to many agricultural products. “The self-sufficiency ratio of the products have exceeded in the following way: dates 125 percent, vegetables and poultry 60 percent, egg 116 percent, fresh milk and its derivatives 109 percent and fish 55 percent,” he added.