Eng. Ahmed bin Saleh Al-Ayada, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture for Agriculture (MEWA), attended a signing ceremony of a partnership agreement on Wednesday between the Saudi Company for Greenhouses Management and Agri Marketing (AlRasheed), and the Dutch company "plantlap", at the Ministry's headquarters in Riyadh. The agreement is part of the Ministry's expansion strategy to increase agricultural production in greenhouses, with investments amounting to SAR 4 billion until 2025. The Ministry of Environment aims to raise domestic production of leafy crops grown in Saudi Arabia to the highest international indoor farming standards and reduce imports of leafy greens into the Saudi market through the partnership. The partnership agreement seeks to improve production efficiency in indoor farming, decrease irrigation water and energy consumption, and exchange foreign technology. It also aims to establish indoor farms using locally manufactured materials, which will help shift the paradigm of the Saudi industrial sector. Along with diversifying domestic exports, the two sides seek to export Saudi goods to the European markets under Kingdom Vision 2030. The Saudi Greenhouse Management and Agri Marketing Company is one of the biggest agricultural production and consultancy firms in the Kingdom. It was established in 1987 with 8 hectares of glass greenhouses at Al-Kharj. Today, it oversees over 75 hectares of greenhouses throughout the Kingdom, with agricultural goods sold in numerous nations. Meanwhile, the Dutch company "plantlap" is the owner of the largest facility specifically designed for research and development related to indoor farming, making the partnership a strengthening of the capacity of the agricultural sector in the Kingdom generally, and the indoor farming sector in particular.
