Saudi Arabia to halt wheat production by 2016
2013-04-16 09:51:51
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will likely depend totally on wheat imports starting from 2016, Arab News reported citing Waleed El-Khereiji, head of Grains and Silos Flour Management Organization (GSFMO).
Many foreign traders have been scrambling for deals in the Saudi market after the Kingdom decided to scrap its 30-year program to boost local wheat output that had reached self-sufficiency.
Since 2008, the government started reducing wheat purchases from local farmers at an annual rate of 12.5 percent, an official from the agriculture ministry says.
He said the Kingdom halted its wheat production program to save underground water.