Saudi Arabia: Kingdom begins procedures to stop export of vegetables
The new directive is part of the ministry’s earlier decision to conserve the Kingdom’s dwindling water resources by reducing reliance on local agricultural production. This initiative follows an earlier decision to have an annual drop of 12.5 percent in the local production of wheat. The Kingdom announced earlier that it would cut domestic wheat production by 12.5 percent a year to conserve scarce water supplies and would rely entirely on imports by 2016. In a major decision taken in January 2008, the Cabinet had also ordered the cessation of export of agricultural products cultivated in open fields in a phased manner within five years. Potato is the main product to be affected by this decision as it ranks top among the agricultural products that Saudi Arabia is exporting to other GCC states, including the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.
According to a report released by the ministry, the Kingdom’s annual vegetable production reached 2.5 million tons in 2010. Tomato tops the list of local vegetable output with 492,000 tons produced, followed by potato with 399,000 tons from a total cultivated area of 10,800 hectares of land. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghunaim on Wednesday said the government is meeting nearly 75 percent of the cost of flour sold to mills operating in the Kingdom. He expressed satisfaction over the adequate supply of the product in the market at reasonable prices. “The government sells one 45 kg bag of flour for SR22 to the mills, and this price makes up one-quarter of the actual price ranging between SR80 and SR90. The product faces no crisis vis-à-vis price hikes or insufficient supply,” he said.
The minister made the remarks while speaking to reporters after signing two contracts for implementing projects at the branch of the General Organization for Grain Silos and Flour Mills for stocking wheat and producing flour in Jazan. The contracts are estimated to cost a total of SR560 million, and the period of implementation is 26 months. Balghunaim said the first contract is for establishing silos to stock wheat with a capacity of 120,000 tons while the second one is for setting up of mills to produce flour with a daily productive capacity of 600 tons, both at Jazan seaport. According to the minister, both projects are aimed at raising the productive capacity of the organization in making available an adequate supply of flour to all the people in the Kingdom, including citizens, foreigners, visitors and pilgrims. “The government is keen to make available huge quantity of wheat flours to meet the growing demand for the essential foodstuff in the local market. There is an annual growth of 2.6 percent in the Kingdom’s population in addition to a record increase in the number of Umrah pilgrims every year,” he said.
The minister has also unveiled plans to increase the stock of flour mills from 2 million tons to more than 3 million tons within the next two years. Balghunaim said the Kingdom’s import of wheat from abroad reached 2 million tons during 2011 and this quantity would increase considerably over the coming years. He attributed this to the Cabinet decision in 2008 January to cut domestic wheat production by 12.5 percent a year and rely heavily on imports. The Kingdom became a major buyer of wheat on global markets after starting the phase out program, to be run over eight years, in 2008. Earlier in 2010, the minister commended Saudi farmers for abandoning wheat cultivation faster than the government had anticipated under a plan to save dwindling water resources. “In two years, since we launched the wheat reduction plan, planted area fell 40 percent, which is faster than we had anticipated,” he said. While underlining the Kingdom’s commitment to entirely eliminating wheat production by 2016, the minister hinted at keeping small plots of land for special purposes, such as organic wheat production. “Some small areas will be planted for special purposes, like organic wheat, otherwise we will depend totally on imports,” he said.
Source: arabnews.com