Agriculture

Middle East’s biggest ‘livestock city’ set for Saudi province

January 10, 2025, 9:15 AM

saudi livestock city slaughterhouse — The Hafr Al Batin project is expected to provide 30 percent of Saudi Arabia’s demand for red meat

$2.4bn city in Hafr Al Batin
Will meet 30% of red meat demand
13,000 local jobs created

A SAR9 billion ($2.4 billion) plan to develop the largest “livestock city” in the Middle East has been announced by the Saudi Eastern Province city of Hafr Al Batin.

The project, which is expected to provide 30 percent of Saudi Arabia’s demand for red meat, was announced at the Hafr Al Batin Investment Forum 2025 this week.

The development will include facilities and pens for raising livestock, feed factories, a veterinary hospital and meat factories.

It will be powered through renewable energy provided by solar panels capable of producing 15 billion kilowatt hours a year.

Production of milk is expected to reach 140,000 litres a day and require 100 tonnes of feed an hour. The city is expected to produce 1.5 million square metres of leather each year.

The project will create more than 13,000 jobs for people in the Hafr Al Batin governorate.

Hafr Al Batin is 480km northeast of Riyadh.

A Saudi Press Agency (SPA) report said seven agreements worth SAR17 billion were signed at the investment forum.

The forum coincided with the Eastern Province Development Authority’s launch of a master plan for Hafr Al Batin that aims to attract investments worth SAR47 billion, most of which will come from the private sector, SPA reported.

The Saudi livestock city is expected to contribute more than SAR11 billion to the local GDP and provide more than 60,000 jobs.

Saudi Arabia imports 80 percent of its food, but is working to increase domestic production as part of its Vision 2030 plans for food security.

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Last year, the Saudi government said it identified a funding gap of SAR37 billion in the agriculture sector.

The Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture said there were investment opportunities in plant and animal production, as well as fisheries, processing, manufacture of agricultural products and infrastructure development.

Farming contributed a record amount of SAR109 billion to Saudi Arabia’s economy in 2023, up from just under SAR100 billion a year earlier.

Malachy Mitchell, co-founder of Dublin-based agribusiness consultancy Farrelly Mitchell, said the latest project has the potential to increase value chain revenues by $2.3 billion dollars per annum, based on average domestic red meat retail prices of $15.2 per kg.

Set to add 53 million litres of milk production per annum, Mitchell said the Hafr Al Batin facility will help to diversify milk supply and create opportunities for the greater localisation of value-added dairy products, especially in the sheep and goat cheese production sector.