Almarai to foray into food segments beyond dairy

Almarai, the largest dairy producer in Saudi Arabia, will launch seafood and red meat facilities to help achieve the Vision 2030 goal of becoming food self-reliant.

The company is building domestic production facilities for seafood and beef and lamb, which will become operational in two years, Bloomberg reported, citing CEO Abdullah Albader.

In March, Almarai said it would spend more than SAR18 billion ($4.8 billion) under its new five-year strategic plan to boost growth, optimise sales and enhance financial performance across multiple segments.

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The company will invest $1.8 billion of its capital expenditure to boost poultry production by 50 to 70 percent by 2026, aiming to process 450 million birds annually, up from 250 million currently.

“Our presence in dairy is important. However, we also believe that there are different categories that we can get into and serve our consumers,” Albader said.

 Global expansion is also part of the strategy, the CEO said.

Last month the Saudi government stepped up efforts to attract investors to its agriculture sector after identifying a funding gap of SAR37 billion.

The kingdom imports 80 percent of its food at the moment, but is working to increase domestic production for food security.