Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza said Tuesday’s visit by a delegation from Saudi Arabia was to deepen agricultural trade and investment between the two countries, and boost agricultural production to improve global food security.
Didiza met with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen A. AlFadley. They were joined by senior government officials, agricultural state entities and business leaders from both countries.
Industry representatives from Saudi Arabia with an interest in livestock,sugar and grains were also part of the delegation.
Didiza said there was a need for increased domestic production of livestock, sugar and grains.
“This visit follows successful negotiations on the protocol for red meat export which was agreed to last October. The South African livestock industry can now export red meat to Saudi Arabia.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a strategic market for agriculture as it imports around 380 billion rands (US$20 billion) of agricultural products a year. South Africa, a net exporter of agricultural products, has ambitions to expand its domestic production on over two million hectares of currently underutilised land, and subsequently increase exports in the coming years,” Didiza said.
She said Saudi Arabia was a vital partner in deepening trade for the current and future of all value chains.
“The engagements with our friends from the Kingdom were deeply encouraging, and we look forward to a fruitful partnership, and deeper trade and investment relations amongst our businesses going forward. As a department, we are also grateful to the domestic farming businesses and agribusinesses that joined the engagements today and showcased the high-quality products that South Africa produces and the investment opportunities.” said Didiza.
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the UAE earlier this year accepted invitations to join the BRICS group of nations.
Leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa agreed to enlarge their BRICS group from January 1, at a summit held in Johannesburg in August last year.
The Mercury