Arabian Agriculture Services Company

Arabian Agricultural Services Company: A pioneering force in greater food safety 

In any business, careful management of supply chain is crucial to success. When that supply chain relates to food, the stakes are much higher, to maintain safety and quality. 

Established in 1983, the Arabian Agricultural Services Company, better known as ARASCO, has, in its own words, “expanded, diversified and played to our strengths to establish our position as KSA’s most prominent food security company”. 

ARASCO’s Chairman, Eng. Abdullah Alrubaian describes the company and its goals as thus:  

“As a strategy focused organization, ARASCO has a clear vision and mission about its key role as a leading player in the field of food security. Based on its values, ARASCO ignores any activity that has no comparative advantage with a far sighted outlook for the future. Our activities in all Business Units are in line and complement each other, resulting in achieving operational excellence at all levels of the business. 

“Accordingly, our future is to undertake horizontal as well as vertical expansion in the existing and future plans. Our experience and highly capable workforce is our real capital in achieving our strategic goals.” 

ARASCO is a closed joint stock company and one of the GCC’s most prominent national food companies, ranking among the largest companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

However, the work that ARASCO undertakes would not necessarily be immediately obvious to the Kingdom’s 30 million residents, although most are consuming ARASCO-related products every day. 

Over the years, the company has developed six specialized strategic business units, each fulfilling key aspects of the country’s food supply chain. These areas are: animal  nutrition, poultry products, farm inputs, food ingredients, food safety and quality and logistics. 

ARASCO Feed has established itself as the largest provider of animal nutrition in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. 

The business manufactures livestock feed (Wafi feed, Lamb Starter feed, Wafi Breeder feed), Horses feed, pigeons feed Dairy Cows feed, poultry feed (Broiler feed, Layer feed, Breeder feed), aqua feed (Marine fish feed, Tilapia feed and Shrimp feed), as well as mixtures of forage (vitamins and minerals “premixes”) and feed inputs (Di-Calcium Phosphate).

The company operates from three locations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), with a capacity of 4 million tons of compound feed per year.

The Al Kharj facility comprises of two feed mills, a premix plant and an extruding plant. At Al Dammam there are two feed mills, a grain terminal and a storage capacity of 500,000 mt. The third site at Al Khobar is a feed phosphate plant and according to the company website, will eventually include a premix plant which it reports is currently under development.

“We will expand our feed phosphate production to 250,000 ton/year in response to the accelerating growth of the phosphoric acid industry in the Kingdom,” the website states.

The company manufactures compound feeds by sourcing from its own robust supply chain.  The process involves combining the company’s own milled grains and protein-rich cakes with highly specific additives to optimize the health and production of our customers’ farm animals. 

The company also produces specialty feeds, premixes and high quality feed phosphates, giving its customers the reassurance that their animals are receiving the recommended levels of minerals, vitamins, micro ingredients and other essential nutritional components. 

“They depend on us to formulate feed blends that cater to the specific and diverse requirements of their livestock, poultry, fish, shrimp, horses or camels,” the corporate website affirms. 

ARASCO operates to the highest international standards when it comes to quality assurance, with all mills and factories ISO-certified and subject to regular quality audits. According to the company website, HACCP, integrated in ISO 22.000, is currently being introduced. 

Additionally the company has its own Research & Development department which works closely with customers as well as with research centres to develop and improve ARASCO’s products.  

“In this way, we continue to provide them with market-leading products on par with global food safety standards, and sufficient supply to meet their increasing demands,” it says. 

ARASCO’s range of poultry products comes under the brand name Entaj, one of Saudi Arabia’s fastest-growing chicken meat consumer brands, operating under the slogan “Saudi Chicken Made Right”. 

Created in 2004 under the ARASCO Food name, Entaj is among the most significant producers of poultry in the Kingdom, with production capacity reaching over 40 million birds annually. 

Entaj has invested in state of the art technology and equipment for each stage of the poultry producing process; from the breeder farms to the hatchery, then to the broiler farms, the poultry processing plant and cold storage and distribution.  

The result is the production of high quality chicken meat and Entaj maintains the Quality Certificates ISO 22000:205 and ISO 9001:2000. 

The third arm to ARASCO’s operations is as a supplier of farm inputs. This comes under the Al Emar brand, a leading distributor to the Kingdom’s agricultural and animal farming operations, including the veterinary field. 

Al Emar’s aim is “to serve and support the Agricultural and

Animal Health Sectors in the Kingdom with a professional focus on quality and environmental safety. 

Through twelve branches located across Saudi Arabia, Al Emar International offers its customers in agriculture and veterinary segments a wide portfolio of products across all segments including: fertilizers, crop protection chemicals and organic farming products to the agro-chemicals market. 

Additionally, the company manufactures and distributes a range of pharmaceuticals, disinfectants and detergents, feed additives and vaccines to the veterinary market. 

Under the MEFSCO name, the company manufactures, sells and distributes quality food ingredients throughout the Gulf region. 

MEFSCO “Middle East Food Solutions Company”, formerly known as ARASCO Corn Products supplying the Gulf region since 2003, was formed in 2013 as a joint venture (JV) between ARASCO (Arabian Agricultural Services Company) & Cargill. 

According to the website, “The joint venture builds on the Corn Starch and Glucose syrup manufacturing business arm of the ARASCO group which is located in Al Kharj, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The manufacturing facility is the singular exclusive manufacturer of such nature in the GCC region and consistently delivering high quality products to customers in the Middle East region and beyond for over 14 years.” 

The site itself is located in Al Kharj, roughly 120 kilometres south of Riyadh and uses state of the art automation and control processes. 

To reinforce its position in the manufacturing of high quality products, MEFSCO started construction on a new ultra-modern manufacturing facility in 2015. 

The facility will be manufacturing Corn Starch, Glucose syrup and Glucose-Fructose Syrup for customers within the Middle East market. 

With food safety and quality standards intensifying, ARASCO became involved in a joint venture with Merieux Nutrisciences to develop IDAC Merieux, a market leader in delivering integrated analytical services and solutions. 

Among the activities carried out is food testing, to determine nutrition facts, shelf life studies and product safety. Sensory evaluation enables the customer to evaluate the taste and acceptance of food and beverage products, to understand consumer attitudes and trends and evaluate market competition.