Arasco, Cargill to create starches and sweeteners joint venture in Saudi Arabia

The new joint venture company will acquire Arasco's existing starches and sweeteners facility in Al Kharj and build on Arasco's already successful starches and sweeteners operations and infrastructure in the Kingdom. Once the agreement is finalised, Arasco will take an 80% share of the joint venture, along with management control. This agreement is subject to regulatory approvals.

Speaking on behalf of Arasco, Chief Executive Officer, Dr Abdulmalik Al Husseini, said, "This new joint venture will build on the strengths of both companies, our existing local market knowledge and local manufacturing environment along with Cargill's global technical and product development capabilities."

As a direct result of the joint venture, the Al Kharj plant will undergo expansion in order to triple the capacity of the plant and meet the growing demand across the confectionery, juice, bakery and catering segments in the region.

Glucose and starch production capacities will more than double and the product offering will be expanded to include high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) - a completely new product for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - to serve the growing food and beverage industry.

"For Cargill, it was important to find a local partner that we had a good working relationship with and a strong cultural fit," said Murat Tarakcioglu, Managing Director for Cargill Turkey. "We have been working with Arasco for a number of years and are excited to be taking this first step into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with them as our local partner."

Ziyad Alsheikh, President of Arasco's existing starches and sweeteners business, said, "This new joint venture will build on the strengths of both companies in order to provide our customers with high quality, local solutions. The combination of our existing local market knowledge and supply chain infrastructure with Cargill's global technical and product development capabilities, will help us to create enhanced solutions for our customers."

Going forward, the joint venture will also pave the way for discovering further opportunities for growth in the region and to support customers with other food ingredient solutions. The joint venture has potential for further expansion in line with customer demand.

The joint venture will also create more new jobs for nationals and will give new Saudi graduates the opportunity to undergo intensive training and development programs, as well as technology transfer and international expertise gain.

"The growth and future development of this business is great news for the Saudi graduates," continued Ziyad Alsheikh, "We intend to raise Saudization to the maximum possible levels and we look forward to welcoming a number of Saudi graduates, in the engineering and technical fields, to this new company."