The Saudi Coffee Company recently signed an investment agreement with the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu to build a 30,000-square-metre coffee warehouse in Jazan City.
Saudi Arabia’s current coffee production is 300 tonnes per year, a figure the country aims to increase to 2,500 tonnes by 2032, an increase of more than 700%. The modernisation will also focus on a more sustainable and localised value chain.
The Saudi Coffee Company also plans to open 25 coffee shops around the world as one of its five pillars of strategies to upgrade the Kingdom’s coffee industry.
The second pillar will focus on roasting and packaging coffee, according to the Kingdom. The company will create an open platform that will allow domestic and global brands to increase their production without necessarily having to invest in their own facilities.
The third pillar would be having a Saudi coffee brand that tells the story of Jazan beans to the globe. The fourth pillar is opening a chain of coffee shops. The last pillar is to lift up the standards of the coffee industry through training and certification by having academies in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam and Jazan.
Raja AlHarbi, CEO, Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)
The new $319 million coffee warehouse in Jazan City appears to be the base on which these five pillars will be built. It will give Saudi Arabia greater connectivity to the global coffee world and provide access to some 2,500 Saudi farms. The Kingdom also wants to provide Saudi youth with training in coffee production and processing.
Several investors in Jazan City, including Saudi Coffee Co. and United Feed Co., have signed the investment and construction agreement, which provides for various facilities “including the establishment of a coffee factory and an animal feed factory, as well as housing and infrastructure projects.”
Alharbi argued that Saudi Arabia is not competing with any other country, but he was playing with some ideas:
PIF is targeting to help in the diversification of the Saudi economy. Agriculture and coffee play a major role in this diversification. Coffee is the second biggest product globally after oil. So, imagine one day Saudi Arabia is the major oil producer, and one of the major coffee producers.
Raja AlHarbi, CEO, Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF)
