Potatoes rank among the top five most-consumed vegetables in Saudi Arabia, and demand is climbing. Yet, the Kingdom still lacks a national seed potato certification capability, leaving this strategically important crop dependent on imported certified seeds. That dependence exposes the value chain to supply disruption (as seen during the Covid outbreak), phytosanitary risk, price volatility, and varieties that may be poorly adapted to Saudi conditions.
A domestic seed certification system would reduce import dependence, improve crop reliability, support local breeding and propagation operations, strengthen rural livelihoods, and lay the technical and regulatory foundation for long-term seed sovereignty.
This article discusses why the current Saudi potato production model is vulnerable, why earlier efforts stopped short of full seed certification, what comparator countries do differently, what barriers stand in the way of building this capability and what a practical implementation pathway for domestic seed potato certification could look like.
Why potato seed certification matters
Saudi Arabia’s food-security agenda increasingly emphasises resilience, localisation, and the ability to manage external shocks. However, despite annual production above 620,000 tonnes, Saudi Arabian potato farmers remain structurally dependent on certified imported seed potatoes, creating a single point of failure in the value chain.
This is a significant issue, with far-reaching ramifications. Potatoes are vegetatively propagated. so yield and quality depend directly on the health and genetic integrity of the seed planted.
If external seed supply is disrupted or the seeds are substandard, then domestic output, farmer incomes, and processor margins are all adversely affected.
Compounding this, the import model itself is inherently fragile. Seed potatoes must arrive within narrow seasonal windows, maintain physiological quality, and meet phytosanitary requirements. Delays, logistical bottlenecks, or outbreaks of diseases in exporting countries can quickly raise costs or reduce crop performance. All of this leaves Saudi Arabia critically exposed to risks outside its control. Without a domestic certification system, the Kingdom cannot reliably guarantee disease-free seeds, maintain genetic purity, scale commercial propagation, or breed varieties suited to desert heat, saline soils, and water constraints. Seed sovereignty is, therefore, foundational to building food-system resilience.
Why earlier efforts did not produce a certification system
For decades Saudi Arabia has worked to strengthen its seed supply. In the 1970s the Saudi Potato Development Programme introduced seed imports, trials, and farmer support, which advanced cultivation. More recently initiatives between Saudi agricultural companies and foreign entities have added important capabilities in tissue culture and mini-tuber production. But valuable as these advances are, they have always stopped short of the institutional, scientific, and regulatory architecture required for a national seed certification system.
By contrast, Egypt has developed its own regulatory agency: the General Authority for Plant Quarantine and Seed Control (GAPC). It reports directly to Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture & Land Reclamation but operates autonomously and with independent authority to set and enforce standards. It maintains its own budget, inspectors and laboratories. It also judges performance against international standards (such as OECD and UNECE) and, as such, is not beholden to the commercial interests of any individual producer, importer, or state enterprise. It conducts mandatory field inspections on all seed producers, including state-owned enterprises like state seed companies, and it has explicit legal authority to decertify or suspend certification of any producer (including state enterprises) that fails to meet standards.
In Saudi Arabia the nearest equivalent is the recently established National Seeds Production Company (NSPC), which is a joint venture between two of the Kingdom’s largest Saudi potato growers and the Dutch seed potato genetics company “HZPC”. It has been established to produce and propagate seed potato in Saudi Arabia, and it is responsible for seed potato production, mini-tuber propagation, classification, and storage. However, where GAPC sets and enforces standards, NSPC merely operates in compliance with MEWA’s general seed regulations and is, importantly, not potato-specific. HZPC’s involvement gives NSPC technical legitimacy, but not any certification or regulatory authority.
Similarly, a major Saudi company recently signed MoUs with Korea’s EGG to localise seed potato production techniques in Saudi Arabia. These agreements aim to transfer technology and establish production capacity and a state‑of‑the‑art seed potato R&D and production lab in KSA. While such agreements are key to developing seed potato production capacity, they are production and technology-transfer agreements, not regulatory instruments. They build capacity, not accountability. They do not enable potato growers to insist upon seed potatoes that meet a published national standard or provide the objective third-party assurance that would signal credibility to domestic and international markets.
Saudi Arabia could replicate Egypt’s model by creating a legal entity (GAPC-equivalent) with an explicit regulatory mandate independent from all seed potato producers. To underpin that mandate, new laws could insist upon certification standards and create legal enforcement mechanisms (fines, licence suspension, decertification) for non-compliance.
Barriers to progress
In addition to the absence of a regulatory authority, Saudi Arabia faces human capital gaps in plant pathology, seed physiology, agronomy, inspection, and breeding. The Kingdom has strong and improving capabilities in many scientific and industrial fields, but it may lack the regulatory experience and crop-specific knowledge required to staff and operate a certification system of international standards. In the short term this gap is likely to require imported expertise, paired with structured training to develop domestic capabilities.
In practice, any credible system is likely to require multiple field inspections, storage or shipment checks, all of which depend on physical infrastructure, such as diagnostic laboratories, inspection vehicles, certified storage facilities, and trained field teams. Investment in diagnostics and inspection facilities will therefore be paramount to the project’s success. However, decision-makers ought to be equally wary of assuming that infrastructure alone creates a system. The development of a national seed certification system will depend on a strong administrative backbone, without which certification standards will not command market confidence.
The implementation pathway for seed potato certification
A national seed potato certification system would make a material difference at a farm level. More reliable access to healthy seed potatoes would improve yield consistency, reduce outbreaks of disease, lower input costs, and improve harvest predictability.
Over time, a stronger seed base could enhance regional production clusters and lead to a more resilient and competitive domestic potato farming industry. They would likely generate positive knock-on effects along the value chain, with processors and input suppliers benefiting from a more predictable production environment. A domestic seed potato certification system would also boost employment by creating demand for inspectors, lab technicians, propagation specialists, breeders, and cold-chain staff.
No country has ever built a certification system in a single step, and Saudi Arabia should not attempt to. The implementation of a seed potato certification system would likely consist of five phases.
It should start by assigning clear institutional ownership for seed certification and defining the respective roles of MEWA, SFDA, NIDC, research bodies, and private-sector partners. Second, a national seed-sector strategy should be developed that sets out the certification model, seed classes, infrastructure requirements, and phased localisation targets. Third, a pilot programme should be launched that covers disease diagnostics, tissue culture, mini-tuber production, field inspection, and certified multiplication in one or two priority regions. Fourth, a national capability-building programme should be established with external experts, universities and international seed institutions in order to train inspectors, technicians, breeders, and propagation specialists. Fifth, a sequenced public–private delivery model should be put in place to protect short-term supply and build domestic capacity over time.
From import dependence to seed sovereignty
Saudi Arabia’s lack of a national seed potato certification system is a food security vulnerability, a missed localisation opportunity, a constraint on farmer productivity and a barrier to industry development. The evidence from comparator countries shows that with the right legal authority, technical standards, and operational control, a credible national certification system is achievable. Constraints exist, but if they are addressed, the Kingdom can move from dependence on imported certified seed potatoes to a more resilient, locally anchored system that safeguards supply, strengthens farmer incomes, and underpins the Kingdom’s wider food-security ambitions.
At Farrelly Mitchell we support governments and national agencies by providing the strategic, technical, and implementation expertise required to build resilient, locally anchored food systems. Our food security and agribusiness experts develop the institutional models, technical roadmaps, market intelligence, and regulatory assistance required for our clients to deliver on their food-security and localisation ambitions. From early scoping and pilot design through to inspection systems and workforce development, we support delivery at every stage of the project’s lifecycle. Contact our experts today to discover how we can help you build the technical and regulatory infrastructure to safeguard your region’s food supply and boost agricultural productivity.
