As climate change intensifies and populations grow, Saudi Arabia is accelerating investments in African agricultural production and export infrastructure in a strategic push to secure food supplies for a kingdom that imports approximately 80 percent of its total food needs.
The initiative, rooted in Saudi Vision 2030, reflects a broader shift in Gulf engagement with Africa — moving away from large-scale land purchases that sparked controversy and local resistance, toward investments in processing infrastructure, logistics, and strategic stakes in global agribusiness firms with significant African operations.
Speaking at the Saudi-Arab-African Economic Conference in Riyadh, Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said the continent represents one of the priorities of the Public Investment Fund, adding that the Kingdom supports more than 400 projects across the African continent.
From Land Purchases to Infrastructure Deals
Saudi Arabia’s footprint in African agriculture is not entirely new. In 2009, Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi established Saudi Star Agricultural Development, acquiring a 10,000-hectare lease in Ethiopia’s Gambela region for rice farming, with plans to invest up to .5 billion. In 2016, Sudan’s parliament approved granting Saudi Arabia rights to cultivate around 420,000 hectares of land for 99 years. Before Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023, the Kingdom was reported to have invested in excess of 5 billion in the country.
However, some of these land-based projects generated significant controversy. The Saudi Star project in Ethiopia’s Gambela region sparked protests from local Anuak communities, culminating in a deadly attack on the company’s compound in 2012. Human rights groups raised concerns about neo-colonialism and the displacement of rural communities from ancestral farmland.
In response, Saudi Arabia appears to have recalibrated its approach. Rather than acquiring land directly, the Kingdom is increasingly seeking priority access to African agricultural output through infrastructure investment and equity stakes in established companies.
Strategic Partnerships and Major Acquisitions
Last year, Vision Invest — Saudi Arabia’s infrastructure fund — announced a 00 million equity investment in Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms, gaining priority access to agricultural products from several African countries. The capital is funding projects including a fertiliser blending facility in Togo, a green ammonia project in Kenya, and a cotton processing complex in Rwanda.
The most significant move came in December 2024, when Saudi Arabia’s SALIC International Investment Company — owned by the Public Investment Fund — completed a .24 billion deal to acquire a 35.43 percent stake in Olam Agri, a global agribusiness firm with extensive operations across Africa. In February 2025, SALIC purchased a further 44.6 percent of the company for .78 billion, bringing its total holding to just over 80 percent.
SALIC CEO Sulaiman Al Rumaih described the full acquisition as aligning with the Kingdom’s strategic objectives of diversifying sources of essential commodities and securing a key position in the global grains sector.
Opportunities and Challenges Ahead
Analysts say the opportunity for African countries is substantial, but warn that governments must structure deals carefully to ensure host countries benefit beyond mere resource extraction. Ronak Gopaldas of Cape Town-based Signal Risk argues that African sovereigns should collaborate to present multi-country projects that offer the scale and structure Saudi investors prefer.
Riyadh tends to operate at scale and prefers structured, high-impact investments, he says. African countries would do well to align their offerings with sectors that resonate with Saudi priorities — most notably agriculture, investment, and energy — and consider pooling projects across countries or regions to create scale and investment appeal.
Saudi Arabia’s food security imperatives are not abstract. The Kingdom’s population is projected to grow from around 36 million today to an estimated 47 million by 2050, while a changing climate continues to complicate domestic agricultural production. The war in Ukraine demonstrated the vulnerability of MENA food supply chains, given that Russia and Ukraine jointly supplied roughly one-third of the region’s wheat before hostilities began.
For Africa, the question is whether this new wave of Gulf investment will be structured in ways that create lasting value for local communities — or whether it will simply replicate the patterns of extraction that have characterized so many previous engagements with the continent’s resources.