ABU DHABI: Saudi Arabia's Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organisation said new wheat silos with a storage capacity of 60,000 tons would be operational by the third quarter of 2015 in Al-Ahsa region in the eastern part of the Kingdom.

The Al-Ahsa silos project cost over SR297 million ($79.2 million), Director General Waleed Elkhereiji told Saudi state news agency SPA on Tuesday.

The new silos are part of a wider plan to add around 790,000 tons of Saudi storage capacity. Other projects include Makkah, Qassim and Jazan and Asir.

The Al-Ahsa project also includes a flour mill with a capacity of 600 tons a day at the cost of SR200 million, which will come on stream at the same time, SPA quoted Elkhereiji as saying.

The Kingdom is looking to raise its milling capacity from 11,430 tons a day to 15,180 tons a day in three years, Elkhereiji said.

Apart from the Al-Ahsa flour mill, new mills are planned in Jazan, Al Kharj and Al-Jamoum.

Elkhereiji said Saudi Arabia's consumption of bread-making wheat amounted to 3.2 million tons in 2013.

Its wheat storage capacity stood at 2.8 million tons at the end of 2013, according to a report by the US Department of Agriculture.