Business & Money | Sunday 17 February, 2019 8:32 am |

The Saudi Export Development Authority (Saudi Exports) will participate in the 24thGulfood in Dubai from February 17 to 21, 2019, as part of the Authority’s sustained efforts to raise awareness about Saudi exports and support exporters by promoting their goods and services in the global market. This is in line with Saudi Vision 2030 objectives to raise the share of the Kingdom’s non-oil exports in non-oil GDP from 16% to 50%, and achieve the aspirations of the leadership to diversify the national economy.  

In Gulfood2019, Saudi Exports is bringing under its umbrella 53 national companies specialized in food sector. In the previous editions of the exhibition, Saudi Exports pavilions included as many as 90 national food companies.

This is the fifth consecutive year of participation for Saudi Exports in Gulfood, which reflects the growth of exports in the Kingdom’s food sector. Saudi exports in the food sector reached SAR 9.5 billion in the first three quarters of 2018, led by the dairy industry with exports worth SAR 3 billion, followed by bakery and sweets with exports of SAR 1.6 billion and fruits and juice industry recording exports of SAR 1.5 billion.

Saudi Exports employs all its capacities to improve the efficiency of the Kingdom’s export environment. The Authority is focused on efforts to eliminate challenges faced by exporters and raise awareness about best export practices as well as develop human capabilities in the sector. It is working to raise export readiness of companies in the sector by offering assessment and consultation services. It also creates suitable export opportunities and markets by preparing market access reports. 

Gulfood is a major annual event in the food sector, one of the fastest growing sectors in the global economy with market value of more than US$ 5 trillion. The robust growth of this sector has generated several promising business opportunities. The Gulfood exhibition in 2018 witnessed more than 97,000 visitors and over 5,000 exhibitors from around the world.