Saudi Arabia’s state grain buyer SAGO said on Monday that companies that buy its flour mills will be able to import wheat directly from global markets in a further liberalization of the country’s grains sector, reports Reuters.
Saudi Arabia is selling its entire flour milling business, a long-awaited privatization that marks one of the first sales of the country’s state-owned assets, part of broader plans to overhaul the economy.
SAGO, one of the world’s largest grain buyers, has until now controlled all the country’s wheat purchases.
Reuters notes that the privatization had attracted initial interest from some of the world’s largest agribusiness companies, including Archer Daniels Midland Co. and Bunge Ltd., and was seen as a litmus test for other large state asset sales to follow.
