His Excellency the Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen A. AlFadley, affirmed that all the three sectors are working together in complete harmony to ensure the safety of water and food supplies, amidst the evolving Coronavirus situation and the government measures taken to mitigate its impact.
"The water supply will remain accessible to all regions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the daily water supply is approximately 9.7 m3 per day," AlFadley said in a statement after overseeing the progress of food and water security projects in Riyadh.
AlFadley confirmed that the water-producing plants and distribution networks continue to operate normally to keep supplying water to the targeted regions of the Kingdom.
Regarding the agriculture sector, AlFadley clarified that the Saudi Grains Organization and milling companies have the capacity, when needed, to produce nearly 270 thousand flour bags weighing 45 kg per day, of different kinds of flour used to make bread and other products in 15 locations across the Kingdom, adding that there is roughly 3.3 million tonnes of wheat in storage while the production capacity is 15.15 thousand tonnes per day.
AlFadley assured the public that there is sufficient stock of flour in all warehouses, which amounts to approximately1.8 million bags weighing 45 kg, ready to be supplied to the market, besides household packages and daily production which meets all the local daily need."
"There is no shortage of fresh food in the Kingdom," he said, affirming that the local production of different varieties of vegetables exceeds 180,000 tonnes per month, which is provided to the local markets in the Kingdom, and that the daily poultry production exceeds 3.5 million birds, the daily production of eggs reaches 15 million eggs, while the daily production of milk is more than 7.5 million liters, and that the production of seafood products exceeds 437 tonnes per day.
He also stressed that quarantines are working around the clock and operating at full capacity to receive animal and plant imports in conformity to the health requirements and ensure their safety, as the total number of plant and animal consignments imported to the Kingdom during a week was about 1284.
AlFadley assures the abundance of food supply and stocks which is among the goals of the food security strategy recently approved by the Council of Ministers. To achieve successful implementation of the strategy, the Ministry, in cooperation with related sectors, started working on the the formation and activation of a four-level structure, to ensure effective governance to implement this strategy, in which 8 food items considered to be strategic food stock hub of Kingdom, and were chosen with an applicable scientific methodology, he said.
The agricultural investment abroad will play a role in providing some of these items through the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) and the other agricultural companies. SALIC has made qualitative investments during the last period, such as investing in companies specialized in growing and trading grains in Ukraine, Australia, Canada and India, in addition to the largest exporter of red meat in Brazil. These investments are an integrated system with local supply chains, ensuring the smooth supply of these items from their sources to the Kingdom. The plan also includes the participation of the private sector in the food logistics system, AlFadley added.
In conclusion, AlFadley confirmed that the Ministry is working on the field in all regions of the Kingdom to ensure the safety of livestock and food supply, the provision of desalinated water and treated wastewater, the implementation of precautionary measure and spreading awareness on how to prevent the spread of the virus, as well as the assessment of developments to raise the level performance and to maintain the gains made in the previous period.