The Saudi poultry sector has been undergoing major expansion projects recently that will impact the long term production potentials and affect its contribution to achieve the Kingdom’s food security goals.
Several years ago, Saudi Arabia’s government has stated a strategic goal of achieving full self-sufficiency in poultry meat consumption, a goal that most analysts believe is not practically feasible.
Poultry self-sufficiency goal
Some poultry analysts believe that a more realistic goal of 60% self-sufficiency of poultry consumption would possibly be achievable. Reaching this target, however, would require a huge expansion in Saudi Arabia’s poultry production capacity, high costs of subsidised poultry feed products, and the implementation of a unified biosecurity system to help reduce chicken broiler mortality rates.
In 2014, local broiler meat production was estimated at 650,000 MT, about an 8% increase over production in 2013. This production satisfies about 46% of the Kingdom’s consumption needs, currently estimated at about 1.4 million MT. The Saudi poultry self-sufficiency ratio is expected to rise to about 50% in 2016.
Broiler production in Saudi Arabia is concentrated in about ten vertically-integrated companies (the three large companies and 7 medium farms) which control about 80% of the total broiler meat production in the country. The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) estimates the number of broiler farms in Saudi Arabia in 2013 to be about 425 units.
Surge in broiler production
The recent surge in broiler production in Saudi Arabia, however, is mostly attributed to ongoing expansion projects at the three largest poultry producers in Saudi Arabia, Al-Watania Poultry, Fakieh Farms, and Almarai Company that were started in 2010.
In 2014, the three companies’ combined production was estimated at about 60% of total Saudi broiler meat production. The companies have been implementing production expansion projects that started in 2010 with total investment of more than $2.83 billion. Poultry analysts expect the three companies to continue their production expansion for the coming years, although at different levels of intensity and to account for about 70% of the total domestic broiler meat production by the end of 2017.
