A Dutch delegation discusses the establishment of the first association for Poultry Producers in Saudi Arabia

(Publiced in Al Hayat Newspaper)
A high ranking Dutch economic delegation discussed the basic challenges confronting the poultry industry in the Kingdom, and they discussed with Saudi officials means of establishing an association representing the poultry producers in the Saudi private sector.  The delegation members were  accompanied by ARASCO and they visited Riyadh and Al-Kharj aiming at enhancing the strategic relations and exchanging the experiences between private sector companies in Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands.

The delegation consisted of Dutch experts in the field of poultry headed by the Director General of the Poultry Center Mr. Andries de Vries and the former Head of the Animal Resources Council Mr. Jos Ramekers, and the Agricultural Counsellor in Riyadh Dr. Hans van der Beek, in addition to a number of heads of big companies and senior specialists in the field from the Netherlands.

The delegation viewed part of the food supply chain and the slaughterhouse managed by ARASCO in each of Riyadh and Al-Kharj.

The Agricultural and Food Officer at the Netherlands Embassy Mr. Mohsen Al-Bahaie said that this visit coincides with the hard work of the Kingdom to develop its poultry sector, due to the huge opportunities offered to this sector, declaring that the Kingdom counts on the Netherlands to cover more than 60% of its technical and technological needs in the field of poultry producing, animal feed and veterinary drugs, and also depends on the Netherlands to develop this sector  strongly through helping the private sector  by offering them innovative solutions to increase the producing competency of poultry farms spread all over the Kingdom.

Al Bahaie said that the Dutch delegation looks for strategic partnerships in the Kingdom within a plan that aims at a dialogue over the strategic cases and not only the trade ones, in the way to attain sustainable development of poultry industry sector in the Kingdom.

On his side, Fahd Al Shihry, from ARASCO, clarified that visiting the industries of ARASCO gave the members of the Dutch delegation a chance to know more about the characteristics of the Saudi agricultural sector, specially the sector of poultry.  He stressed that ARASCO has exerted all its human resources capabilities using the latest advanced technologies to manage its industries and numeral units.