KSA: Doing business in China

FOOD consumption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been going up, driven by the population boom and rising incomes.

This, in turn, has fuelled the rapid growth of KSA’s food processing and packaging industry. The Kingdom imports over SR 18.8 billion worth of food and beverage products a year to supplement local production.¹

Food and drink companies in the Kingdom are constantly searching for the latest technologies and products to meet the needs of a consumer base that will exceed 40 million in the next 20 years.

With capabilities growing, China has been optimising its potential as one of the world’s largest resource for the food processing and packaging industry by tapping lucrative export markets like Saudi Arabia, its biggest trade partner in the Middle East.

China exports to Saudi Arabia are still in small volumes (mainly textiles, mechanical and electrical products), but imports large quantity of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, leading to a trade deficit with the Arab nation.²

With China’s huge deficit in its two-way trade with KSA, this is one opportunity that it cannot pass up on. Its trade pact with the six-country Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes Saudi Arabia, enables the Chinese to tap the Kingdom’s processed food market – that today accounts for half of the total food market in the Middle East.

The China advantage

China’s food processing and packaging machinery as well as its food ingredients industries have evolved and expanded rapidly in the past years with growth characterised by the use of technology.

The advancement in this sector has been driven by several factors including the need to meet Western markets’ standards to enable Air Jordan 1