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Saudi Arabia’s Grain Corporation to Become General Food Security Authority

In July 2021, Saudi Arabia completed the final stage of the flour milling sector privatization. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
In July 2021, Saudi Arabia completed the final stage of the flour milling sector privatization. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia’s Grain Corporation to Become General Food Security Authority

In July 2021, Saudi Arabia completed the final stage of the flour milling sector privatization. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
In July 2021, Saudi Arabia completed the final stage of the flour milling sector privatization. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Saudi Council of Ministers decided to transform the Saudi Grains Organization (SAGO) into the General Food Security Authority (GFSA), and approved the draft organizational arrangements for the entity.

The move came to confirm the government’s keenness to maintain the security of the food sector, in light of the recent challenges caused by the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, which impacted prices of food and commodities.

SAGO is considered one of the first sectors targeted by the Saudi government’s privatization program. In July 2021, the National Center for Privatization announced the sale of the second and fourth mill companies, the final stage of the process of privatizing the flour production sector.

The award of each milling company was decided based on the highest financial bids submitted by qualified strategic investors.

Since the beginning of the global food crisis, the Saudi government has taken measures to ensure the availability of basic commodities.

Last year, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued a directive approving the allocation of 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) to address the repercussions of rising global prices, including 10 billion ($2.6 billion) for beneficiaries of social security and the Citizen’s Account program.

Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz has also emphasized the necessity to help the most needy citizens in the face of the rise in prices, during his presidency of the meeting of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs at As-Salam Palace in Jeddah last year.

The Crown Prince underlined the important role of the relevant ministries and government agencies in monitoring developments regarding supply chains, product abundance and price levels, as well as protecting and encouraging fair competition, and combating and preventing monopoly that affects legitimate competition and the interest of the consumer.

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Syria Gets New Cash Shipment from Russia 

A view of Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)
A view of Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)
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Syria Gets New Cash Shipment from Russia 

A view of Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)
A view of Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, January 12, 2025. (Reuters)

Syria received a new shipment of its local currency printed in Russia on Wednesday and more shipments were expected in the future, a Syrian government official said.

The cash arrived via plane at Damascus airport on Wednesday and was taken by a convoy of several trucks to the central bank, according to a separate source familiar with the matter, reported Reuters.

Syria began paying Russia to print its currency under a multi-million-dollar contract during the 13-year-old Syrian civil war, after Damascus' previous contract with a subsidiary of the Austrian central bank was terminated due to European sanctions.

It is unclear if the arrangement is now continuing under the same terms. One source familiar with the contract said it was.

Russia backed Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad during the war, swaying the conflict with its bombardment of opposition groups including the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that ousted Assad in a lightning offensive last year.

But Russia quickly moved to maintain its ties with Damascus in the weeks after Assad fled to Moscow, with an eye on keeping its two key bases in the country's coastal region.

A senior Russian diplomat visited Damascus in January and Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 12.

Two days later, Syria received its first shipment of local currency from Russia.

The cash shipments are critical: Syria's war-ravaged economy has slid further in the past months amid a shortage of currency that Syrian officials have attributed in part to delays in the Russian cash shipments, as well as to hoarding of Syrian pounds.

A senior former Syrian official said Russian cash shipments in the hundreds of billions of Syrian pounds (tens of millions of US dollars) used to arrive in Damascus each month. Reuters could not determine exactly how much had arrived on Wednesday, the second such shipment since Assad was ousted on Dec. 8.

The cash crunch has left Syrian depositors struggling to use their savings and has piled pressure on local businesses who are already being squeezed by new competition from cheap imports as the protectionist economy is opened up by the new rulers.

Economists and analysts say Syria's cash shortage is largely behind the currency's strengthening on the black market in the months since Assad fell, while it has also been helped by an influx of visitors from abroad and an end to strict controls on trade in foreign currencies.

The pound on Thursday was trading at around 10,000 per Greenback on the black market, compared to the official central bank rate of 13,000.

It traded at around 15,000 per US dollar before Assad was toppled.

Syrian central bank governor Maysaa Sabreen told Reuters in January that she wanted to avoid printing Syrian pounds to guard against inflation.

The central bank only has foreign exchange reserves of around $200 million in cash, sources previously told Reuters, a huge drop from the $18.5 billion that the International Monetary Fund estimated Syria had in 2010, a year before civil war erupted.

It also holds nearly 26 tons of gold, the same amount it held before the war, the sources said.