RIYADH: The introduction of greenhouse farming can help reduce the country's current high vegetable prices, according to Abdulaziz M. Al-Babtain, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Development Company (NADEC). Al-Babtain's views, in an interview with Saudi Gazette, come in the wake of a blame-game being played between the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and various mayoralties on the rise in vegetable prices. NADEC was established by Royal Decree in 1981 to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on agricultural imports. It is a joint stock public company with SR400 million equity capital. The Saudi government owns 20 percent of the company's shares while the rest is publicly traded. Al-Babtain said greenhouse farming on a large scale can strike the correct balance between supply and demand. He added that the cultivation of certain agricultural produce is not possible through conventional methods such as open-air farming, because of the adverse climate in the country. Al-Babtain said the high price of tomatoes, for instance, and other produce in the local market was due to the drastic decline in the production of vegetables in the Kingdom. The decline in production at some Saudi Arabian farms is between 40 to 60 percent, he said. “I have reports that several farms have reduced agricultural produce by up to 60 percent mainly because of the extreme heat in Saudi Arabia,” he said. Al-Babtain said there are huge gaps in the quantity of agricultural produce because traditional methods of farming have failed to meet the growing demand in the local market, he said. “The only solution to control the dramatic rise in pricing of agricultural produce would be to look for alternative modern ways of farming and that's greenhouse,” he said. Greenhouse farming would allow farmers to grow produce at a reasonable cost and therefore reduce prices for consumers, he said.Another reason for the decline in production was the decision by several farmers to shift their businesses from agriculture to other ventures. “Several farmers decided either to minimize agricultural farming or totally stopped their cultivation business because of the high cost of wheat production and low buying rate from the government. This happened over the past two years,” he said. Al-Babtain said Saudi farmers have to get financial assistance, to help them stay in the agriculture business. The same goes for greenhouse farming, said Al-Babtain. The agricultural sector in many countries around the world is subsidized, he said. He said the cost of production for any crop has gone up because of the rising prices of material on international markets. Farmers currently pay more for seeds, fertilizer and other material and therefore need to be subsidized to survive, he said. “Greenhouse farming is an expensive mechanism, which needs support from the government so that the agriculture companies can meet the production level and thus maintain pricing in the local market,” he said. There is a huge potential for greenhouse farming in Saudi Arabia, he said, adding that other countries in the region are facing similar problems with extreme weather affecting farming. NADEC has taken the lead in the development of the agriculture sector in Saudi Arabia. This has resulted in the Kingdom producing 700 tons of milk on a daily basis, 350 tons of juices of various types, as well as cheese, yogurt and other dairy products. NADEC is still the biggest producer of wheat, and has a 60 percent market share in the supply of potatoes to major chip manufacturing factories in the Kingdom. NADEC employs over 5,500 people and the company had a turnover of SR1.3 billion in 2009 compared with SR500 million in 2003, Al
