Investment in the sweets and chocolate industry in Saudi Arabia reached SAR35bn across its 1,066 factories by mid-July, according to figures released by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources.
A report released by the National Centre of Industrial and Mining Information revealed that investments in sweets and chocolate factories made up 1.38 percent of total investments.
Riyadh boasted the highest share of factories with 377 – representing 35 percent of the total number across the kingdom.
Makkah Al-Mukarramah holds 294 confectionary factories, and 133 chocolate and sweets factories are found in the Qassim region.
Foreign investments in the industry totalled three percent, Saudi investors comprised 92 percent and the remaining five percent was distributed among joint capitals.
The report said that 50 percent of confectionery and chocolate factories were large enterprises, 14 percent medium enterprises and 36 percent were small enterprises.
It added that SAR11.9bn of total investments were in the 235 “gatetoh”, petit four and cake factories; SAR5.6bn ($1.5bn) in the 134 cocoa blocks and paste factories; and more than SAR3.3bn ($880m) were invested in the 123 sugar sweets factories.
In terms of product quality, the date maamoul factories claimed first place with 81 factories, the chocolate factories finished second with 43 factories and the cake factories placed third with 38 factories.
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