We invite you to join a Business Finland Trade Mission focusing on opportunities in the food and digital / preventive health sectors in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) on 10 – 15 September 2022.
In the KSA, transforming healthcare is high on the agenda and there is growing consumer demand for food products and innovative solutions that support healthy lifestyles and well-being. The program will include tailor made industry specific buyer meetings as well as meetings with the main relevant government bodies.
Why Saudi Arabia?
Health
With a reported $804.9 billion gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021, Saudi Arabia is on the top position as the largest economy in the Middle East and the 19th largest in the world.
Saudi Arabia's real GDP is expected to rise by an average of 3% between 2022 and 2023, according to the IMF. The aggressive investment strategy aimed at accelerating the realization of Vision 2030, the ambitious national reform plan to reform the Saudi economy, is primarily responsible for this forecasted continuous growth.
The Saudi healthcare sector is one of the main focus areas of Saudi Vision 2030 and National Transformation Program 2020 (NTP) that both aim to increase the quality of healthcare services and facilities across the Kingdom. The budget for Health and Social Affairs in 2022 is 138 billion riyals, or nearly 15% of overall government spending, making Healthcare the third largest beneficiary after education and the military.
Food
In recent years, Saudi Arabia has seen a change in lifestyle including eating habits. Awareness of healthy eating is on the rise across the county, especially among young people. Finnish food companies offer healthy, pure, and natural products. They are safe products that promote a healthy lifestyle. Finnish food companies have a chance to take a piece of the health food market in KSA. The global health food trend is on the rise, we see that on the shelves of supermarkets and hypermarkets as they dedicate big spaces for health foods. Online shopping is growing fast too in KSA. With growing women's rights leading to a higher employment rate, the demand for convenience products is increasing.
Food from Finland will in KSA organize meetings for participating companies to establish relationships with important stakeholders and to explore business opportunities in various food sectors, for example, healthy food and bottled water.
Who should attend?
The visit is tailored for Finnish companies focusing on two sectors:
- Finnish health sector companies offering services, products and innovations especially for the digitally supported wellbeing, prevention of chronic -and life style related illnesses, infection control as well as those offering further education and training for those topics. Organizations operating in the field of Private – Public partnership and research could also benefit from this delegation.
- Food and beverages sector companies, who are focusing preferably on health enhancing or functional products, food additives or other added value products, like oat and other plant-based products, natural products (juices, berries), confectionery or other convenience products. Products can be targeted either for retail, food service channels or food industry. Companies can be large or medium sized, having already the readiness to start export business to the Middle-East.
See the preliminary program in the link below.
Practicalities
To cover the expenses of arranging the visit program in Saudi Arabia, Business Finland will charge a maximum participation fee of EUR 1500 + 24% VAT per person.
Business Finland will invoice the participation fee after the visit based on the actual costs. The invoiced fee will not exceed the amounts mentioned above. Business Finland reserves the right to reconsider the offer / cancel the visit if less than 10 companies are to join the delegation. Kindly note that the participation fee does not include flights or accommodation of the participant nor meals outside the business delegation program.
