Saudi Arabia produced 72% of the poultry meat it consumed in 2024, up from 71% a year earlier, and the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture aims for 90% by 2030. Even if consumption stayed flat, moving from 72% to 90% means producing about a quarter more chicken at home. Consumption is not flat: available poultry meat per person rose from 43.4 to 46.9 kg in a single year.
Where the sector stands
Trade reports put national production at about 1.2 million tonnes in 2024. The ministry has described a SAR 17 billion investment plan for the sector, about 80% deployed by 2024. The Agricultural Development Fund has said it can finance up to 70% of projects that use advanced technologies. Money for new capacity exists. The question is what that capacity costs to run.
The cost of producing in the heat
The same pressures appear in every serious report on the sector. The USDA’s attache in Riyadh noted that production costs stay high because of the need to control temperatures in chicken houses in extremely hot weather, and that most subsidies on imported feed ended in January 2020. Riyadh’s average daily maximum is 43.7 °C in July and August. Feed is imported, water is scarce, and every degree of heat stress costs growth and feed conversion.
Self-sufficiency will be won by lowering the cost per kilogram as much as by adding houses. That is where technology pays.
Where technology fits
New houses can be built instrumented from day one. Retrofitting sensors and controllers is possible but costs more and disrupts production. For an integrator planning new sites, four areas matter most:
- Climate control driven by temperature and humidity at bird height, with alarms for power and fan failure. Heat is the largest single risk in summer.
- Automatic weighing and feed and water meters in every house, so growth problems show up in days rather than at slaughter.
- Data that reaches the integrator’s central team from every farm in the same format, so the best house can teach the worst.
- Hatchery and breeder monitoring, because chick quality sets the ceiling for everything after.
None of this replaces good management. It gives good managers the numbers to act early, on more farms than they can visit in person.
What to ask before investing
- Has the system been run through a full Saudi summer, in a house like yours, and with what results?
- Who services it locally, how fast, and with which spare parts in stock?
- Can its data be exported and combined with your other systems?
How Zoonexa helps
Zoonexa works with integrators and farm owners on new and existing poultry sites: assessing houses, selecting climate, weighing and monitoring systems that perform in Saudi heat, installing and commissioning them, and training teams in Arabic. See our poultry intelligence and automation solutions or book a farm visit.