Cairo: Saudi Arabia has unveiled a plan to set up a zone for animal proteins in a coastal city as part of its efforts to achieve food self-sufficiency and boost non-oil exports, local media reported.
Officials from the government National Livestock and Fisheries Development Programme the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu this week signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the zone in Jazan in south-western Saudi Arabia.
Created in 1975, RCJY is also responsible for developing the Jazan Economic City.
The pact, signed on Sunday, is part of the Saudi 2030 Vision, an ambitious development programme envisaging food security and augmentation of the agricultural and industrial sectors’ contribution to the gross domestic product as well as boost of Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports, upgrade of logistics of supply chains and creation of new jobs, the Saudi official news agency SPA said.
Saudi Arabia aims to localise around 85 per cent of its food industries by 2030, it added.
Jazan has been chosen to host the zone, officially known as the Jazan City for Animal Proteins, due to its geographical edge of overlooking the Red Sea, making it an ideal gateway to Saudi exports to Africa, East Asia and Europe as well as its boasting of the infrastructure necessary for localising transformational industries having an added value to Saudi Arabia’s economy, thereby helping meet local and global demand for food products, the officials added.
Saudi Arabia, a country of around 34.8 million people, has achieved self-sufficiency of 50-60 per cent of its red meat and fish needs, according to official figures.
The kingdom’s industrial sector has seen a significant increase in food factories that reached 1,023 plants by mid-2022 with estimated investments to the tune of SR88 billion, SPA said.
