Saudi Arabia and China pledge to work together in food security, science, energy and investments, ‘ignoring’ Western ire
- Saudi Arabia’s ministers responsible for foreign affairs, energy, investments and agriculture pledged closer ties with China during a two-day conference
- The 10th Arab-China Business Conference (ACBC) drew more than 3,500 delegates of 23 nationalities
Saudi Arabia and China will work together in food security, science, investments and energy, bringing the world’s largest oil producer and its number one customer into a tighter embrace as they embark on a golden age of bilateral relations.
“We will have the great opportunity to achieve self sufficiency [in food] for both countries,” the Saudi Minister of Environment, Water and Agriculture Abdulrahman Abdulmohsen A. Al-Fadley said during a panel discussion moderated by the Post at the 10th Arab-China Business Conference (ACBC) in Riyadh.
“We should also benefit from science,” the minister said. “Today we have new technologies, [so] both countries should cooperate to mitigate the current standing costs in the markets.”
His comments were echoed later by the kingdom’s ministers overseeing investments and energy. Saudi Minister of Investments Khalid Al Falih said the kingdom was counting on an impending free trade deal between China and the Saudi Arabia-dominated Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members to help the region diversify their economies from their reliance on fossil fuels.
“We need to enable and empower our industries to export, so we hope all countries that negotiate with us for free trade deals know we need to protect our new, emerging industries,” Al-Falih said to an audience that included the vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Hu Chunhua.
The pledges for closer collaboration was the central theme that emerged from the two-day conference in the Saudi capital, which attracted more than 3,500 delegates of 23 different nationalities – including 1,200 who flew in from mainland China alone – from business executives to academics and government officials.
China is the largest trading partner for Arab countries, with the volume of commerce standing at a record US$430 billion in 2022, the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan said when he kicked off the conference on Sunday. Saudi Arabia alone made up a quarter of the volume, with bilateral trade rising 30 per cent last year to US$106.1 billion.
Closer ties between China and the Middle East have raised concerns in Washington DC and European capitals. The Saudi oil minister went so far as to say he would “ignore” Western suspicions over the warming ties between the two countries.
“I actually ignore it because … as a business person . you go where opportunity comes your way,” Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said, according to Reuters. “We don’t have to be facing any choice which has to do with (saying) either with us or with the others.”
The warming ties between Riyadh and Beijing are translating into real deals. A US-China joint venture said it would build a plant in Saudi Arabia that can use bacteria to turn methane into animal feed at five times the annual capacity of its pilot in Chongqing, as scientists look to microbiology for solutions to ensure food security.
Plans are afoot to build a fermenter in the Saudi industrial city of Al Jubail, with the capacity to churn out 100,000 tonnes of feedstock for animals by 2027, said Pierre Casamatta, the managing director of Calysseo, a venture between California-based Calysta and China National BlueStar’s feed additive subsidiary Adisseo.
“Interestingly, you have the exact same logic in China and in Saudi Arabia: China needs locally made protein for sustainable agriculture … and now we have a major project in Saudi Arabia [for] a larger plant,” Casamatta said at a panel on food security at ACBC.
Chinese, Saudi officials vow to boost business environment
China and Saudi Arabia are heavy animal feed importers, both affected by the ongoing global food crisis wrought by climate change, and the supply shock caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine, the world’s major grain exporter.
Calysseo used the technology of its US-based shareholder Calysta to produce animal feed using “novel” protein ingredients, which would be more sustainable than conventional feed as it requires no animals or plants, Casamatta said.
‘No doubt’ over China’s Middle East economic inroads, but politics ‘more complex’
The company currently has a fermenter in southwestern China’s metropolis of Chongqing, with the capacity of 20,000 tonnes of its animal food called FeedKind per year. Casamatta said the company’s larger plan in Saudi Arabia would mean products earmarked for global markets, in addition to selling the protein to China.
The smaller plant in China would “limit risk” in the first phase of turning the gas-to-feed technique into industrial production, but with the increasing needs of major agriculture companies in Saudi Arabia, the company would probably see “one-third of this production sold locally,” Casamatta said.
“We can apply responsible investments to a third-party country, and the benefits will go not only to the hosting country, but also to China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” said the Saudi, during the same panel. “The investment can lead to the increase of agricultural production, thus contributing to food security not only to China and the Kingdom, but the whole world.”
The very global nature of food security underscores how the world needs to come together to address the issue as a globalised whole, said Abdullah Al-Bader, the CEO of the Al-Marai Company.
