Introduction

SALIC, one of the companies of the State Investment Fund, announced today, Wednesday, the acquisition of 180 million shares of BRF, the world leader in poultry production, with a share of 10.7%, with a total investment of 1.27 billion Saudi Riyals.

Expanding to Achieve Food Security

SALIC said in a statement that these investments are being made as part of its ongoing expansion to achieve its core role in global and local food security, based on Kingdom Vision 2030 to support national development in the long term to ensure sustainable availability of targeted staple foods.

Strategic Commodities and Self-Sufficiency

SALIC is committed to obtaining strategic commodities from its main sources through global investments and partnerships and to benefit from the comparative advantages in the production of commodities in these countries, as poultry is an important commodity in the Kingdom in light of the increasing population growth and high domestic consumption rate, which is approximately 43 kg per year per capita, while the Kingdom intends to continue to increase the percentage of self-sufficiency in poultry compared to the current level.

Supporting the Local Agri-Food Sector

SALIC added that its investment in BRF will support its strategic direction to empower the local agri-food sector, helping to close gaps in the value chain and benefiting from up-to-date global experience and technology to improve local production efficiency and improve problem-solving agility and the availability of products in the market. Domestic and reduce price fluctuations, in line with the national strategy for agriculture.

Continued Investments in Animal Protein Sources

SALIC also confirmed that investments in the poultry sector are a continuation of its investments in large international companies to access animal protein sources in order to achieve food security goals in this sector locally and globally, as it began in 2016 AD with a strategic investment and quality partnership with Minerva Foods. The Brazilian company is one of the largest international red meat companies, in addition to the recent acquisition of a 42.4% stake in Saudi Naqwa company, world leader in aquaculture.

About BRF

Notably, BRF, which began operations 85 years ago, is the third largest poultry meat producer in the world, the second largest halal food company in the world, and the first brand of poultry meat products in Brazil, with an annual production capacity of over 5 million tons of diversified products, which employs 90,000 employees in 130 countries.