Fresh milk and yoghurt produced by Almarai of Saudi Arabia dot the shelves of grocery stores in Dubai, Riyadh and throughout the Gulf Arab states. From a humble start as a single milk processing plant in 1976, Almarai now counts more than 60,000 dairy cows at its facilities in the Saudi desert. The company provides 27 per cent of the region’s milk, 40 per cent of its yoghurt and 44 per cent of the market for laban, a yoghurt drink popular in the Gulf.
Almarai’s growth provides a lesson in how a Middle Eastern company can expand beyond the borders of its base country to create a presence across the region – helped in part by the Gulf Co-operation Council, whose member nations do not pay tariffs when exporting to each other, giving regional trade a competitive edge.
Saudi Arabia’s population of 27m remains Almarai’s largest market, accounting for 70 per cent of the company’s revenue. But the United Arab Emirates is now its second-largest market, at 11 per cent. Every day, Almarai trucks fresh dairy to more than 40,000 customers.
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