RIYADH, 26 July — The Kingdom’s new agricultural policy is expected to give a big boost to the local food industry. Though details of the new strategy are still being worked out, Minister of Agriculture Dr. Abdullah Al-Muammar has indicated that it will deal with issues such as subsidies and financial support to farmers.
It would also encourage setting up of food industries based on local produce as raw material.
An agricultural expert said yesterday that a committee of experts and academics was preparing a new strategy to develop the country’s agricultural sector over the next two decades. They are expected to come out with proposals early next year.
The news strategy envisages greater private sector participation in the development of sectors of agriculture, water and agricultural marketing.
Welcoming the new thrust of the policy, Ibrahim Al-Hazami, general manager of the National Seeds Co., told Arab News that his company was planning to raise wheat seeds production from 1,500 tons to 600,000 tons next year.
He said the decision to increase the output was dictated by the 3.7 percent annual growth rate in the Kingdom’s population that would escalate demand for wheat and wheat products.
Other beneficiaries of the new policy would be the date, dairy, poultry and fodder industries, since the government has hinted that they need to be expanded.
Although the Kingdom banned the export of alfalfa in October last year, it continues to encourage export of poultry meat, eggs, dairy products and processed foods, according to a study of the Saudi agricultural market. Hussain Mousa, a marketing specialist at the US Agriculture Trade Office at the American Embassy in Riyadh, conducted the study.
Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s largest producers of date with an annual yield of 648,000 tons, procures substantial quantities of dates from farmers for distribution through the World Food Program.
The study points out that to encourage production of dates the government pays farmers SR50 per date palm. It also guarantees the purchase price for dates at SR2,000 ($533.33) per ton. The Kingdom has a total of 18 million date palms involving 400 varieties, of which 60 are fancied around the world.
Minister of Industry and Electricity Dr. Hashim Yamani said recently that the Kingdom would require 9.2 million tons of fodder by 2010 as against the current production capacity of 4.3 million tons from 48 fodder factories. In 1999, Saudi Arabia imported 389,000 tons of fodder valued at SR397.5 million.
