Saudi Arabia AgriFood Technologies Global Expert Mission Report

Introduction

As innovation is increasingly a global endeavour and more UK businesses have the ambition to grow and scale globally, it is important to create the right opportunities on which businesses can capitalise. Innovate UK’s Global Missions Programme helps further Innovate UK’s global strategy (and that of the wider UK Government) by providing the evidence base for where it should invest, and by highlighting the opportunities that exist for UK businesses to build partnerships and collaboration with key economies. To this end, this Global Expert Mission (GEM) is a crucial step to better understanding the KSA market and innovation ecosystem, and to help build key stakeholder relationships in the AgriFood Tech sector.

Importance of this Saudi Arabia AgriFood Technologies GEM

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) faces a number of significant environmental challenges, with a climate, terrain and natural resources that have a huge impact on its agricultural potential and water reserves. Across the food sector in KSA, these challenges greatly restrict domestic production opportunities, meaning an overwhelming reliance on imports and a food security issue in need of a long-term solution.

In March 2024, the UK and KSA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to boost research links and collaboration in science and technology between the two countries. The agreement also laid the foundation for deeper cooperation for the UK and KSA that addressed global challenges in food security, water and clean energy. In particular, the MOU highlighted the AgriFood Tech sector as a priority, with a dedicated Deputyship created in the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA) to oversee the research and innovation in KSA.

With the UK having a strong focus in this sector covering aquaculture, crops, novel foods and livestock, this GEM sought to understand the opportunity that exists to explore and establish an innovation partnership with KSA. To achieve this, the Global Expert Mission (GEM) delegation attended a number of meetings and site visits across the regions surrounding Riyadh, Jeddah and Tabuk. These visits included leading businesses, crop and livestock farms, research centres and universities, with the aim of understanding the broader AgriFood innovation ecosystem across KSA and where the opportunities may lie for greater UK collaboration.

This information will then inform potential future business-led activity to support UK companies in creating connections in KSA for their solutions, as well as growing the opportunity for activities to take place between the countries to support continued innovation and knowledge sharing.

GEM Key Objectives

The GEM brought together a team of UK industry experts across the AgriFood Tech space to assess the wider research and innovation landscape in KSA and identify areas of future collaboration. The visit focused on five key technology areas:

• Controlled Environment Agriculture
• Alternative Protein Production
• Aquaculture
• Precision Agriculture and Livestock
• Precision Breeding