A report issued by the King Abdullah Institute for Research and Advisory Studies at King Saud University said that Saudi Arabia imports 90% of its food commodities from the European Union and eight other countries. Brazil is the largest exporter of food to the country, followed by the European Union, India and the U.S. It said the situation has strategic ramifications and that the country should seek to open a new window to meet the increasing demand for food as a result of the growing population.

For example, the demand for wheat will rise to 3.2 million tons in 2015 from 2.8 million tons in 2008, and the demand for rice will increase from one million tons to 1.2 million tons for the same period. Sugar will go up from 526 thousand tons to 782 thousand tons, and cooking oil from 432 thousand tons to 490 thousand tons. Barley will drop to 3.7 million tons by 2015 from 7.1 million tons in 2008 as a result of the state’s policy to use less barley in animal feed.

Among the measures taken by the state to deal with the food crisis, is a 50% reduction on port taxes for three years as well as another 50% for passport, driving licenses, property transfer and residency card renewal taxes. Moreover, Saudi Arabia has decided to increase salaries and pensions by 5% each year, for the next coming three.

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