Saudi Arabia building first grain terminal at Yanbu Commercial Port
Saudi Arabia is building its first grain terminal at the port of Yanbu.
The Saudi Ports Authority (MAWANI) and the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) will develop the 313,000 square-metre terminal, state news agency SPA reported on Thursday (July 23).
“The Yanbu grain project aims to build the first regional centre and logistic platform for importing, processing and exporting grains in KSA,” said MAWANI chairperson and Saudi minister of transport, Saleh bin Nasser Al Jasser.
The terminal will have a capacity of 5 million tons annually.
SALIC is owned by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund. Details of the investment were not disclosed.
SALIC chairperson Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Mohsen Al Fadhli said the company relies on the geographical location of the Kingdom and the port infrastructure for overall food distribution solutions in the region by linking Saudi Arabia to global grain sources, especially countries where SALIC is currently investing.
Yanbu Commercial Port lies on the Red Sea coast, facing the northeastern and eastern coasts of Africa. It is considered the nearest major Saudi port to Europe and North America.
SALIC’s priority investment destinations for key grains are: rice - Pakistan and Australia; corn - Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, USA, and Romania; and for barley - Canada, Australia France, the Black Sea region and the Balkans, it says on its website.
Saudi Arabia imported $2.81 billion in grains in 2019, according to data from the United Nations’ ITC Trade Map. Most of these were rice ($1.415 billion), maize or corn ($715,322), and barley ($541,762).
Its top trading partner for rice was India, followed by Pakistan, USA, Thailand, and Australia. Its maize or corn mainly came from Argentina, Brazil, USA, Paraguay, and Yemen, and it imported most of its barley from Argentina, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Estonia, and Romania.
Yanbu Commercial Port currently handles imports that include general cargo, containers, bulk and bagged fertilisers, bulk feed, and petroleum coal, according to its website. It houses two silos for bulk material storage with a capacity of 20,000 tons per unit.
Saudi Arabia’s total 2019-20 grains imports is estimated at 14.2 million tons, up from 13.5 million tons the year before, according to the International Grains Council. The IGC forecasts the same level of imports for 2020-21. Its data point to 14.8 million tons in grain consumption in the Kingdom in 2019-20 and it sees this number rising to 15.2 million tons for 2020-21.
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