Construction on a massive crop growing project to help form a horticulture hub on the outskirts of Neom is set to be completed in 2024, Neom Food CEO Juan Carlos Motamayor told Bloomberg. The two test facilities broke ground earlier this year after Dutch firm Van Der Hoeven was awarded last year a USD 120 mn contract to design and construct the facilities then service and operate them in later years.

The details: The facilities spanning a combined area of over 110k square meters — or the size of some 15 football fields as described by Bloomberg — and includes the use of AI-driven crop growing and advanced water filtration systems. Van Der Hoeven plans to use a solar and seawater-driven cooling system on one of the facilities to operate the greenhouse through scorching temperatures, lessening water usage from the local grid. The second site would see a quarantine greenhouse to introduce perennial crops to Neom. The first site could be operational as early as August 2024.

Big goals ahead: The project will expand significantly after the completion of the planned greenhouses, Motamayor said. “We will scale up to hundreds of hectares with different types of greenhouses,” he said. Neom needs over a thousand hectares of greenhouses to reach its goal to produce over 300k tons of fruits and vegetables within the next eight to ten years. It also eyes becoming a regional food hub after meeting the needs of the city and the rest of the country, Motamayor adds.

And that’s not all: Neom partnered earlier this year with Care’s, a global project founded by Italian chefs Norbert Niederkofler and Paolo Ferretti, to develop its culinary identity in order to treat food supply responsibly from the plant to the plate. It will outline the principles for sustainable gastronomy, food security, and offer educational initiatives and content to expand the understanding of healthy eating. The partnership comes under its efforts to become the world’s most food self-sufficient city.

Why is this important? Saudi Arabia’s dry landscape and soaring temperatures during summer pushed it to be self-reliant on imports to supply most of its food, and food security has become a priority since the global pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatened food security in the region. KSA’s sovereign wealth fund the Public Investment Fund (PIF) has earmarked a number of agreements to boost food security, including an agreement earlier this year with US-based AeroFarms to set up a company in Riyadh to build and operate indoor vertical farms in the country. Salic, a wholly owned subsidiary of PIF, also recently acquired a 10.7% stakein Brazilian food processor BRF under the plan. BRF has also formalized earlier this month the creation of a joint venture with the Halal Products Development Company, a subsidiary of the PIF.

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