Almarai announces new investments of 6.6 billion Riyals in the poultry sector

Almarai announced new investments worth 6600 million Riyals in the interest of doubling the production operations in the poultry sector in the Kingdom through three phases until 2026. These investments will increase the company’s share of chilled chicken, which represents today 96% of its total production, along with increasing its production and share of frozen poultry.

The Chairman of Almarai Board of Directors, His Highness Prince Naif Bin Sultan Bin Mohammad Bin Saud Al Kabeer mentioned that these investments will strengthen the company’s position in this food industry, as Almarai’s investments in the poultry sector, which starts in 2011, will reach more than 12 billion Saudis. It will also strengthen the company’s business model that provides consumers with healthy and nutritious products from Almarai’s farms to their tables. In addition to that, it will increase the company’s financial returns.

He further added that these investments come to reinforce the company’s growing role as one of the main empires of food security in the Kingdom. In addition, these investments are directly consistent with the Kingdom’s vision 2030, which “supports the growth of the private sector and works to increase the attractiveness of the labor market and emphasizes the strengthening of mechanisms that ensure the sustainability of critical resources.” Prince Naif further explained that Almarai’s approach by this considerable investment reflects the company’s commitment to the government’s directions in increasing the domestic production of poultry, which currently reaches 800 thousand metric tons, representing approximately 55% of the country’s need for poultry. Despite that 70% of the Kingdom’s need of imported poultry comes from only one source. Prince Naif concluded his statement by mentioning that the poultry production facilities, that will be established by these new investments, will be distributed in a number of regions in the Kingdom to ensure that chilled and frozen chicken reaches the final consumer in record time, and to reduce the risks of relying on only one production site, according to the biosecurity objectives in Almarai.

It’s worth mentioning that Almarai adopts an integrated vegetarian diet free of protein and growth accelerators to feed the chickens on its farms in Hail. Almarai also conducts annually more than 60,000 quality tests to ensure food safety, which qualified its facilities to obtain ISO 22000, 9001, 14001 certifications, as well as SSC 2200 certification. It also recently received the pandemic readiness certificate 2020 from the American AIP Consulting Institute, as the first company in the world.