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Al-Khorayef: Saudi Arabia Seeking to Provide Comprehensive Food Security Solutions

Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef is seen at the Saudi Food Show in Riyadh. (SPA)
Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef is seen at the Saudi Food Show in Riyadh. (SPA)
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Al-Khorayef: Saudi Arabia Seeking to Provide Comprehensive Food Security Solutions

Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef is seen at the Saudi Food Show in Riyadh. (SPA)
Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef is seen at the Saudi Food Show in Riyadh. (SPA)

Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Al-Khorayef emphasized that the food industry sector is not merely a source of food production, but a fundamental pillar for achieving the Kingdom's food security.

He made his remarks during the opening of the Saudi Food Show that is being held in strategic partnership with the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (MODON) and KAOUN International in Riyadh.

He noted that the Kingdom seeks to offer comprehensive solutions for food security, adding that a food security strategy has been developed to ensure its needs for essential food products are met under both normal conditions and emergencies.

This strategy aligns with several others under the Saudi Vision 2030, including the National Industrial Strategy, the Saudization Strategy, and the Export Strategy.

Moreover, Al-Khorayef highlighted that Saudi Arabia has achieved tangible results in food security, meeting its needs for essential food products under all circumstances, including emergencies, and enhancing self-sufficiency in many food products. The Kingdom has achieved 100% self-sufficiency in dairy products, 52% in fish, and 68% in poultry.

He stated that the Kingdom boasts a robust industrial base with more than 1,500 food factories and investments exceeding SAR88 billion.

He also noted that the Kingdom's food exports amounted to approximately SAR20 billion in 2023. The Saudi Industrial Development Fund provided 23 loans worth SAR700 million to food factories, and the Saudi Export-Import Bank provided more than SAR3 billion to support food exports during the same year.

The minister stressed that the ministry, in collaboration with its partners, aims to improve industrial infrastructure, encourage investment in the food industry sector, and provide financial and technical support to small and medium-sized enterprises in this sector.

Additionally, the ministry is exploring new investment opportunities and increasing production capacities in the meat, poultry, and seafood sectors.

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US Says it Will Not Hit Iran Energy Sector

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright attend a roundtable on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, D.C., US, March 4, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright attend a roundtable on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, D.C., US, March 4, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo
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US Says it Will Not Hit Iran Energy Sector

FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright attend a roundtable on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, D.C., US, March 4, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright attend a roundtable on the Ratepayer Protection Pledge in the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, D.C., US, March 4, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard/File Photo

The United States will spare Iran's energy infrastructure as it wages war with Israel against Tehran, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday.

With oil prices rising dramatically, he told CNN that disruptions to the petroleum and gas industry will be short lived -- "worst case, that's a few weeks. That's not months."

Israel attacked oil storage facilities Saturday in and around Tehran, sparking huge fires in the first such attacks reported since the war started last weekend. Wright seemed to downplay them.

"These are Israeli strikes, these are local fuel depots to fill up the gas tank," Wright said.

He added: "The US is targeting zero energy infrastructure. There are no plans to target Iran's oil industry, their natural gas industry, or anything about their energy industry."

The war has all but shut down the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 20 percent of the world's crude oil and about 20 percent of liquefied natural gas usually transit.

Energy markets have been roiled by this disruption and oil prices shot up. West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark for oil, rose 12 percent just on Friday and is up 36 percent in a week.

"They shouldn't go much higher than they are here because the world is very well supplied with oil," Wright told CBS. "There's no energy shortage in all of the Western hemisphere."

US insurer AAA said US gasoline prices at the pump have gone up 16 percent in a week and diesel by 22 percent.

The website GasBuddy says diesel fuel, used extensively in trucking, had not been this expensive since February 2023.

Gasoline prices are closely watched in this country where cars are king and they could become a factor as America heads toward mid-term elections in November. Trump's approval rating was low even before the war.

"What you're seeing is emotional reactions and fear that this is a long term war," Wright said on CBS, according to AFP. "This is not a long-term war."

He said the United States is now talking with shipping companies eager to get their vessels out of the Gulf.

"Early tankers probably will involve some direct protection by the US military" to get through the Strait of Hormuz, he said, adding that he thinks traffic will return to normal "relatively soon."

Iran accounts for about four percent of world oil production, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Its oil industry is subject to international sanctions but some is still exported, mainly to China, oil industry data shows.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday the government was considering lifting sanctions on more Russian oil, a day after it temporarily authorized India to buy from Moscow as global oil prices surged.

The US International Development Finance Corporation also said Friday it is creating a reinsurance mechanism of up to $20 billion to cover risk associated with travel through the Strait of Hormuz.

Business

Iraqi Oil Production Collapses as Hormuz Still Blocked by US-Iran War, Sources Say

Pumping station at the end of the Druzhba oil pipeline in Schwedt, Germany (AP)
Pumping station at the end of the Druzhba oil pipeline in Schwedt, Germany (AP)
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Iraqi Oil Production Collapses as Hormuz Still Blocked by US-Iran War, Sources Say

Pumping station at the end of the Druzhba oil pipeline in Schwedt, Germany (AP)
Pumping station at the end of the Druzhba oil pipeline in Schwedt, Germany (AP)

Iraqi oil production from its main southern oilfields has fallen by 70% to just 1.3 million barrels per day as the country is unable to export oil via the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war, 3 industry sources said on Sunday.

According to Reuters, production from the fields stood at around 4.3 million bpd before the war.

Business

Egyptian Pound Hits Record Low as Mideast War Roils Markets

One of the ATMs in downtown Cairo, the Egyptian capital (AFP)
One of the ATMs in downtown Cairo, the Egyptian capital (AFP)
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Egyptian Pound Hits Record Low as Mideast War Roils Markets

One of the ATMs in downtown Cairo, the Egyptian capital (AFP)
One of the ATMs in downtown Cairo, the Egyptian capital (AFP)

Egypt's currency fell to a record low, trading at over 52 to the US dollar on Sunday, as the economic fallout of the war in the Middle East hits the region's most populous country.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has expanded across the Gulf and beyond, upending global energy markets and trade, and virtually halting traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's crude oil travels.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last week warned that the country was in a "state of near-emergency", warning of renewed inflationary pressures.

Despite Egypt not having been directly hit by the war, the fighting has nonetheless pushed some shipping companies away from its Suez Canal, a key source of foreign currency.

Egypt's import-dependent economy has proved highly sensitive to currency fluctuations in the past.

Inflation -- 11.9 percent in January -- peaked at nearly 40 percent in August 2023, on the back of a punishing economic crisis that has since eased, thanks in part to an over $50 billion bailout.