Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC), wholly-owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF), has completed the acquisition of two red meat skinning and processing facilities in Australia, in partnership with Minerva Foods Brazil.
SALIC and Minerva Foods merged the two factories by establishing a company named Minerva Foods Australia. SALIC, which owns 35 percent of the company, has an annual production capacity exceeding one million heads of livestock and targets producing and marketing red meat from sheep to global markets, especially to the Gulf and Middle East regions.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the Middle Eastern and Asian markets accounted for more than 60 percent of global beef imports in 2020. In the first three-quarters of last year, the region was the destination of nearly 55 percent of Minerva Foods’ beef exports.
Commenting on the acquisition, Eng. Sulaiman Bin Abdulrahman Al-Rumaih, CEO of SALIC, stated that the project is in line with SALIC’s contribution towards attaining the food security strategy of Saudi Arabia by creating a chain of sustainable agricultural investments globally. The Kingdom imports over 70 percent of its needs of red meat by an annual of 550,000 tons.
Mr. Al-Rumaih also pointed out that setting up the project in Australia is part of a plan to expand SALIC’s investments after fully possessing Meridian Farms Australia in 2019, which grows cereals and raises livestock.
SALIC
The Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC) is a Saudi joint-stock company owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, PIF. The company focuses on agricultural investment and livestock production in countries with comparative advantages, in order to contribute to the achievement of food security and the provision of food products and price stability in the Kingdom.
