This past week, Saudi Arabia was mentioned as one of the countries that are set to join the BRICS in January 2024. There is no doubt that SA’s agriculture stands to benefit enormously from close co-operation with Saudi Arabia. With the inclusion of Saudi Arabia in the BRICS, SA would now look at three significant markets to broaden agricultural exports. It is important for a country like SA to push for geographic diversification of trade especially in the light of intensifying geo-economic tensions and the growing protectionism in traditional markets.
The original BRICS countries are already an important agricultural market. According to data from Trade Map, they collectively import about US$320 billion of agricultural products from the world market in 2022.
Saudi Arabia is a major agricultural importer. Over the past five years, the nation imported, on average, $21 bn of agricultural products. The dominant suppliers of farm products to Saudi Arabia are Brazil, India, the US, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, France, Turkey and Egypt.
Source: heraldlive.co.za