# Saudi ministry reports agriculture output and value indicators for 2025 > At a Riyadh agriculture conference, the ministry said the sector’s GDP contribution rose from SAR 74 billion in 2016 to SAR 124 billion in 2025; output and trade patterns varied across food groups. - Canonical URL: https://newsverum.com/en/news/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025 - Publisher: Newsverum - Section: Agriculture - Country: Saudi Arabia - Published: 2026-10-25T23:04:28+00:00 - Updated: 2026-10-26T03:05:01+03:00 - Event / data period: 2025 - Other editions: [Türkçe](https://newsverum.com/tr/news/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025.md), [العربية](https://newsverum.com/ar/news/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025.md), [Français](https://newsverum.com/fr/news/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025.md), [Español](https://newsverum.com/es/news/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025.md), [Deutsch](https://newsverum.com/de/news/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025.md), [Português](https://newsverum.com/pt/news/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025.md) Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture (MEWA) presented a set of sector indicators for 2025 at the Saudi International Conference for the Future of Agriculture in Riyadh on October 22. The ministry said agriculture’s contribution to gross domestic product rose from SAR 74 billion in 2016 to SAR 124 billion in 2025. Plant production was about 11.6 million tonnes in 2025, including roughly 3 million tonnes of fruit, dates included; milk production was 2.7 million tonnes. These are aggregate indicators in a conference presentation. The announcement does not say whether the riyal contribution is adjusted for inflation, so a nominal value increase should not be treated as equivalent to real growth in output volume. The presentation covers not only total output but also the different position of food groups in domestic supply and trade. In 2025, domestic fruit production excluding dates exceeded 1 million tonnes; fruit imports were about 1.9 million tonnes and estimated domestic demand was about 2.9 million tonnes. The figures show that imports remained substantial even as local fruit output grew. According to MEWA, citrus, olives, grapes and mangoes made up more than 90% of domestic fruit production. That percentage describes the composition of local output; it does not mean those crops met all domestic demand or that imports of them were insignificant. The source gives a snapshot of production and trade, but not a crop-by-crop import table or a full supply-use balance. For red meat, the conference presentation put domestic production at about 293,000 tonnes and net imports at 281,000 tonnes. MEWA gave a 7% compound annual growth rate for imports between 2016 and 2025 and said exports fell by 1%. These measures require the flows to remain distinct: net imports are imports after exports are deducted, not gross imports. The announcement did not provide consumption for this section, so production and net imports should not be added and labelled total supply or per-capita consumption. The figures show that foreign trade remained part of red-meat supply while domestic output was also a significant source in 2025. They do not, by themselves, explain changes in prices, producer margins or household consumption. The reported poultry picture was different. Domestic production exceeded 1.3 million tonnes, net imports were about 483,000 tonnes and total consumption exceeded 1.79 million tonnes. MEWA said imports declined at a 5% compound annual rate and exports grew by 8% over 2016–2025. The ministry linked the expansion of domestic production to import substitution. The conference summary does not separate the change by company investment, feed inputs, disease controls or facility capacity, however. Poultry totals indicate that the composition of supply changed, but they are not enough to establish production costs, profitability or consumer-price effects. Retaining the separate production, net-import and consumption values is necessary to describe what the ministry actually reported. Fisheries and aquaculture were also reported as a separate sector. MEWA put domestic production at about 290,000 tonnes in 2025, net imports at 131,000 tonnes and consumption at 421,000 tonnes; the fish self-sufficiency rate was 69%. The ministry said domestic output expanded while exports grew at a 1% compound annual rate between 2016 and 2025. The percentage is a self-sufficiency indicator, not a production volume: it describes domestic supply relative to the relevant consumption measure. The conference report does not detail which species or the division between aquaculture and capture fisheries are included in the aggregate. Comparisons with other food groups therefore need to preserve the fish measure’s scope and 2025 reference year. The organic indicators cover a longer period. MEWA said organic product output increased from 45,630 tonnes in 2018 to 86,980 tonnes in 2025, a reported rise of 90%. The number of organic farms rose from 175 to 527 over the same period, while sales outlets increased from 190 to 433. The concurrent expansion of output, farms and outlets indicates that the market involves more than field production alone. The presentation does not give farm-size distributions, certification scope, product shares or sales value. A 201% increase in farm count also does not mean the production capacity of each farm grew by the same proportion. Those additional measures would be needed to describe how the sector’s structure and commercial performance changed. The beekeeping figures also require a distinction between output and production-unit counts. MEWA said honey production rose from 1,600 tonnes in 2016 to 7,800 tonnes in 2025. The conference report also gave values for hive counts, but the scope of that count series is not explained and it cannot readily be matched with other national beekeeping statistics, so it is not repeated here. During the same agriculture-show period, SPA published a separate Reef programme statement on modern hives and 2026 honey production. That 2026 statement has a different reference period and programme framing from MEWA’s 2016–2025 national transformation series. The two releases can provide context, but their measures should not be merged as if they were one consistent series. National statistics offer a separate comparison frame for the 2025 conference totals. GASTAT’s 2024 agricultural bulletin recorded about 1.923 million tonnes of dates, 1.651 million tonnes of grain, 2.745 million tonnes of open-field vegetables and 797,000 tonnes of protected vegetables. These are 2024 values organized by crop group, so they differ in year and coverage from MEWA’s 2025 plant-production total. GASTAT says its agricultural statistics draw on survey data and administrative records. Those definitions underline why product and period comparisons are more informative than relying on a single aggregate. The conference figures are more recent, but the announcement does not publish a full series with all the associated statistical definitions and revisions. MEWA’s conference remarks also identified water efficiency, localization of technology and links between research and practical application as priorities. Those priorities are not enough to attribute production gains to particular technologies: the conference report is not an impact study measuring how much output came from each intervention. The ministry’s exhibition description brought together agriculture, livestock, feed, aquaculture, veterinary services, food processing and packaging. That breadth shows why the policy discussion includes supply chains, investment and processing as well as farm output. The available sources support describing the goals and reported values separately. They do not quantify the effect of a specific technology, partnership or investment on the sector totals. The conference report’s evidence boundary also matters. Its figures are attributed to ministry officials’ presentations; the news item does not explain, by product, which administrative records were used or whether the numbers are subject to revision. GASTAT’s annual statistics serve a different role: the authority publishes crop-group and regional data for plant and animal production using survey and administrative information. MEWA’s conference figures offer a more recent account of 2025, while the statistical bulletin gives detailed measurements for 2024. The difference in years does not remove the conference figures’ value as an update, but it does mean readers should not join the two sources into a single verified series without matching definitions and coverage. Taken together, the conference figures point to expanding domestic capacity alongside different import and self-sufficiency profiles among food groups. For poultry and fish, the ministry reported production, net imports and consumption separately; for fruit and red meat, not all of those measures were included on the same basis. A single domestic-production ratio for all food groups cannot be derived from the figures provided. Further assessment would benefit from MEWA’s product definitions, comparable annual tables and GASTAT supply-and-use statistics for matching years. The ministry’s 2016 and 2025 comparisons show long-run sector change, but without adjustments for price effects, producer numbers and resource use they do not fully measure the economic character of that growth. ## Data ### 2025 indicators reported by MEWA 2025 indicators reported by MEWA in its October 22, 2026 conference report; measure scope may differ across food groups. Methodology: Values are transcribed as reported in the ministry presentation. Percentage changes and quantity measures remain separate; no calculations absent from the source have been added. | label | value | unit | period | basis | value_qualifier | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Agriculture GDP contribution, 2016 | 74 | billion SAR | 2016 | observed | | | Agriculture GDP contribution, 2025 | 124 | billion SAR | 2025 | observed | | | Plant production, 2025 | 11600000 | tonnes | 2025 | observed | approximate | | Milk production, 2025 | 2700000 | tonnes | 2025 | observed | approximate | | Red meat production, 2025 | 293000 | tonnes | 2025 | observed | approximate | | Net red-meat imports, 2025 | 281000 | tonnes | 2025 | observed | approximate | | Fish production, 2025 | 290000 | tonnes | 2025 | observed | approximate | Sources: · Download data: [JSON](https://newsverum.com/api/v1/articles/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025/data/saudi-agriculture-2025-indicators?lang=en&format=json) · [CSV](https://newsverum.com/api/v1/articles/saudi-agriculture-output-investment-2025/data/saudi-agriculture-2025-indicators?lang=en&format=csv) ## Sources - [Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Experts at Saudi Agriculture 2026 review agricultural transformation and growth indicators]() (Source checked: 2026-10-26; Published: 2026-10-22) - [General Authority for Statistics, Agricultural Statistics 2024 results]() (Source checked: 2026-10-26; Published: 2025-11-30) - [General Authority for Statistics, Food Security Statistics 2024]() (Source checked: 2026-10-26) - [Saudi Press Agency, Saudi Reef Program Reports over 100% Growth in Some Key Agricultural Sectors]() (Source checked: 2026-10-26; Published: 2026-10-25) - [MEWA, Saudi Agriculture exhibition 2026 opens in Riyadh]() (Source checked: 2026-10-26; Published: 2026-10-20) ## Correction history - 2026-10-26T03:05:01+03:00: Full Arabic, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese translations and data labels were added. --- Cite the canonical URL above. 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