MUST-READS

• Supermarkets of Saudi Arabia: Ensuring Food Security and Economic Diversity

  Saudi Arabia has a strong growing consumer demographic and the grocery retail sector is estimated to be around 55 percent of the total retail market of the sector. In 2025, while the online grocery shopping sector is forecast to reach 10 percent of the total grocery sales, the overall size of the retail market is projected to reach USD 31.4 billion. This growth is majorly attributed to the growing popularity of modern retail formats such as supermarkets and hypermarkets.

• Nestlé establishes its first food manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia

  Nestlé agrees plans for its first food manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia with investment from the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (Modon). The project aims in its initial stages to produce children’s food and launch an automated production line with modern technologies for packaging and filling materials operated by highly skilled and qualified national personnel. The 270 million SAR (US$72 million) investment is intended to boost local food production. The agreement, signed on September 15, 2024, in Riyadh, allocates a 117,000 SQM plot in Jeddah city’s Third Industrial City for the facility.

• Saudi Arabia continues airdrops of food aid to Gaza

  Two planeload of food supplies landed in Jordan on Monday, on its way to distribute among the people of the Gaza Strip. The relief supply was airdropped in cooperation with the Jordanian Armed Forces to overcome the difficulties caused by the closure of the border crossings by the Israeli occupation forces.

• In Sudan’s catastrophe, food runs out as guns flow freely

  One of the worst famines in decades is on the verge of breaking out in Africa’s third-largest country. Sudan is in the grips of more than 15 months of ruinous civil strife that’s led to untold calamity and horror. Though casualty figures are far from clear, the top U.S. envoy to the region recently suggested that some 150,000 people may have been killed since the conflict between two rival warlords exploded last year. Now, the United Nations claims that some 750,000 people are on the brink of starvation. Western officials liken what’s unfolding to the famine in Somalia in 2011, where a quarter of a million people died, half of whom were children.

• Saudi provides food aid to Sudan, Yemen

  The Kingdom’s aid agency KSrelief has continued to provide food to vulnerable families in Sudan and Yemen, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday. In the River Nile state of Sudan, 1,200 boxes of food were given to 6,900 individuals affected by the ongoing conflict in the country. In the Al-Mansoura district of Yemen’s Aden governorate, KSrelief handed out 413 boxes of food for 2,891 individuals, as a part of its continuing aid project in the war-torn country.

• America’s Arabian Superfood

  In the US over the past few years, dates have been trending as a superfood, often promoted in the recipes of energy smoothies or nutrition bars. As medical institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic note on their websites, numerous studies show that dates provide long-lasting, easily transportable energy, are rich in minerals like iron and potassium, and may help reduce cholesterol, keep blood-sugar levels steady and aid digestive health.

• The UAE’s Path to Food Self-Sufficiency

  The UAE has achieved high rankings in food security indices. However, these rankings do not fully capture all aspects of the UAE’s food supply challenges, which primarily stem from its lack of food self-sufficiency. Food self-sufficiency – having greater control over food supply and reducing vulnerability to external threats – is crucial, as it allows a country to directly manage and influence its food production and availability. Despite the presence of over 38,000 farms in the UAE, their contribution to its food supply is minimal compared to food imports, which constitute up to 85% of consumption and cost about $13.2 billion in 2022. While this amount is manageable for a country as wealthy as the UAE, this reliance on food imports makes the UAE vulnerable to global food supply shocks caused by climate change, geopolitical tensions, pandemics, and other disruptions. 

• KAUST joins Saudi AgriFood Tech Alliance
  The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture announced the launch of the first Saudi AgriFood Tech Alliance with KAUST, a founding member alongside the Research, Development and Innovation Authority and Topian, the NEOM Food Company. The alliance aims to provide a platform to unite and mobilize a complementary network of food and agriculture stakeholders, catalyzing the national-scale deployment of AgriFood technological solutions.

• Food and beverage sector dominates Saudi POS spending
  According to a report by the Saudi Central Bank, restaurants and cafes in the Kingdom have spearheaded a notable increase in point-of-sale (POS) transactions from June 30 to July 06. The food and beverage sector held the largest share of POS spending, with an 8.8 percent increase to SR2.05 billion, up from SR1.88 billion the previous week. This was followed by the restaurant and cafe sector, which saw a 9 percent rise in spending, reaching SR1.96 billion. This highlighted a resilient economic recovery.

• Saudi Arabia Continues Airdrop Operations of Quality Food Aid to Gaza in Cooperation with Jordan

  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), has continued airdrop operations of quality food aid for those affected in the Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. A food airdrop operation was conducted yesterday in the Al-Mawasi area west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, in collaboration with the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army, aiming to break the blockade imposed by Israeli occupation forces on the land border crossings.

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