RIYADH: The Saudi Agricultural Development Fund has financed 467,000 loans, with a total value of SR55 billion ($14.6 billion), since its inception in 1962 until the end of 2021.
The figures were revealed within the Agricultural Exhibition Forum sessions on the sidelines of the Saudi Agriculture Exhibition 2022 and the Saudi Agri-Business Forum, under the title “Securing the Kingdom’s diversified food needs in various sub-sectors.”
The services are represented in financing specialized projects such as poultry, greenhouses, fish farming, and food manufacturing industries, the ADF advisor Alaa Siddid explained.
Development loans target farmers, livestock breeders, beekeepers and fishermen, in addition to financing external agricultural investment projects, Siddiq said.
He added that the loans also focus on the working capital initiative to import agricultural products with the aim of enhancing food security and supporting strategic stocks.
Third Milling Co. board member Ahmad Hijazi reviewed the importance of activating innovative methods in increasing production.
The company succeeded in investing this by raising the production capacity from 100,000 tons to 400,000 tons per year, with the same available resources and factories, in order to secure local production of flour and feed, Hijazi explained.
Fahad Aljadaan, marketing and business development director at Alkhorayef Commercial Co., talked up the importance of using new technologies and automation on innovative equipment to ensure maximum returns, reduce losses and costs, and increase production efficiency.
The company exports irrigation devices to 40 countries — ranking fourth in the world — and the sprinkler system was able to introduce modern irrigation techniques, raise production efficiency and reduce consumption by up to 30 percent, he said.
Organic production in the Kingdom amounted to 105,000 tons in 2021, with a value of SR1.03 billion per year, and an area of more than 27,100 hectares, and an increase in organic production areas that reached 138 percent, Saudi Organic Farming Association Director Yazeed Alfifi said, citing the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture data.
The Kingdom achieved second place in the world in the development of the organic sector during the period from 2018 to 2021, he said.