Does Saudi Arabia's Food & Beverage have the ecosystem it needs to scale? or welcome international brands?

Over the past 3 years, I have spent a significant amount of time on the ground in Saudi Arabia — building relationships, meeting businesses, attending industry events, supporting market-entry discussions and steadily developing a deeper understanding of the food and beverage sector.

While being in the country I attended other industry events and recognised Saudi Arabia has become very good at building ecosystems around priority industries.

In technology, fintech and entrepreneurship, you can see the infrastructure around the sector developing in real time: accelerators, investor networks, founder communities, government programmes, side events, knowledge sessions, networking platforms and regular opportunities for people across the ecosystem to connect.

When I look at food and beverage, however, the picture feels different.

The industry itself is significant.

There is strong domestic consumption, a growing hospitality sector, increasing food manufacturing activity, a thriving restaurant and café scene, ambitious local brands, international companies looking to enter the market and a national agenda focused on tourism, food security, local production and diversification.

Yet the ecosystem surrounding all of this still feels relatively fragmented.

That does not mean there is nothing happening - quite the opposite.

There are government initiatives, accelerators, funding programmes, culinary organisations, trade exhibitions and individual communities already doing valuable work.

The question is whether these pieces are sufficiently connected.

The opportunity is bigger than another trade show

Saudi Arabia already has major food industry exhibitions such as Saudi Food Show, FoodEx and HORECA.

These events are important. They bring suppliers, buyers, operators, distributors and service providers together under one roof.

But there is an opportunity to think beyond the exhibition floor.

In sectors such as technology, some of the most valuable conversations do not necessarily happen inside the main event.

They happen around it:

• Founder breakfasts
• Investor dinners
• Roundtables
• Informal meet-ups
• Industry-specific sessions
• Closed-door buyer discussions
• Workshops
• Networking events organised by accelerators, investors, corporates and communities

These create multiple access points into the ecosystem.

There is no reason the same approach could not develop further around F&B.

Imagine Saudi Food Show week becoming a wider “Saudi Food Week”, with events happening across Riyadh or Jeddah involving manufacturers, restaurants, investors, distributors, entrepreneurs, culinary professionals and international companies.

That could include everything from export workshops and investor sessions to chef collaborations, retail tours, founder meet-ups and buyer matchmaking.

The exhibition becomes the anchor — rather than the entire ecosystem.

Local brands need different types of support at different stages

One of the strongest things I have seen in Saudi Arabia is the number of interesting local brands.

There are restaurant concepts, coffee businesses, food manufacturers, date brands, confectionery companies, beverage businesses and increasingly sophisticated Saudi consumer brands.

Some have the potential to become major national brands. Some have the potential to become regional or global brands. However, scaling a successful local business requires a very different set of capabilities from launching one.

A brand might need help with:

• franchising
• manufacturing
• distribution
• retail placement
• investment readiness
• export strategy
• international market entry
• operational systems
• brand positioning
• procurement
• compliance
• supply chain development

The ecosystem therefore cannot simply focus on starting businesses, it also needs to help good businesses scale.

This is where organisations such as Misk, the Culinary Arts Commission, Social Development Bank, Monsha’at and other public and private sector organisations could potentially play complementary roles.

The opportunity may be less about creating entirely new programmes and more about connecting what already exists.

International companies need an entry point too

The ecosystem also needs to work in both directions. There are many international F&B and FMCG companies interested in Saudi Arabia but navigating the market is not always straightforward.

Companies want to understand questions such as:

• Who are the right distributors?
• How is the retail landscape structured?
• What does the consumer actually want?
• What regulatory requirements apply?
• Should we manufacture locally?
• Who are credible partners?
• Which events should we attend?
• How do we build relationships before entering?

At the moment, many companies approach the market through disconnected introductions, consultants, exhibitions and individual contacts.

There is an opportunity to create a clearer bridge between international brands and the Saudi ecosystem.

That could benefit both sides.

International companies gain a more structured route into the market, while Saudi distributors, investors, operators and manufacturers gain access to more relevant international opportunities.

Better connections between the different parts of the industry

One of the biggest opportunities I see is simply connecting different groups that often operate separately.

For example:

• Manufacturers rarely sit in the same room as restaurant founders
• Investors may not regularly meet emerging food brands
• Distributors may not have easy access to innovative Saudi manufacturers
• International brands may struggle to identify the right local partners
• Chefs, food entrepreneurs, manufacturers, retailers and technology providers often belong to completely different networks
• Yet innovation usually happens when these groups start talking to each other

A stronger ecosystem could create more opportunities for these intersections.

What could a stronger F&B ecosystem look like?

It does not necessarily require a huge new organisation, it could start with relatively simple building blocks.

• A regular F&B founders and operators network
• Quarterly roundtables focused on specific industry challenges
• Structured buyer and distributor matchmaking
• Investor sessions specifically focused on food, hospitality and FMCG
• Workshops on franchising, exporting and scaling
• International market-entry sessions
• A platform highlighting Saudi brands looking to expand globally
• More collaboration between universities, culinary institutions, manufacturers and entrepreneurs
• Industry-specific accelerator programmes
• Mentorship from experienced operators
• More visibility for existing initiatives

And importantly, stronger connections between the organisations already supporting the sector.

Over time, these activities create something much more valuable than individual events.

They create community, and community creates knowledge, partnerships, investment and opportunity.

If I were starting with five things

If the objective was to strengthen the Saudi F&B ecosystem without overcomplicating it, these are five areas I would start with.

1. Create a year-round F&B community

The industry needs more regular opportunities to connect outside the major exhibitions.

Not another large conference, but a consistent programme of smaller events bringing together founders, operators, manufacturers, investors, distributors, retailers, chefs and service providers.

Monthly or quarterly meet-ups, roundtables and informal networking could start to create the relationships that form the foundation of an ecosystem.

The key would be consistency, a strong ecosystem is not built during two or three exhibition weeks each year, it is built through repeated interaction.

2. Build an ecosystem around the major trade shows

Saudi Food Show and HORECA already provide natural moments when much of the industry is in one place. That creates an opportunity to develop a wider programme around them.

• Industry breakfasts
• Founder dinners
• Investor and brand matchmaking
• Market-entry workshops
• Retail and manufacturing visits
• International delegation events
• Export sessions for Saudi companies
• Invite-only discussions around specific challenges in the industry

The objective would be to make the trade-show week valuable even beyond the exhibition itself.

3. Create clearer pathways for promising Saudi brands to scale

There are many initiatives supporting entrepreneurship, but the needs of a business change significantly once it moves beyond the start-up stage.

A Saudi F&B brand that has proven demand may no longer need help launching, it may need help opening its tenth location.

• Entering supermarkets
• Finding manufacturing capacity
• Building a franchise model
• Raising growth capital
• Exporting into the GCC, UK, Asia or Africa

A more structured scale-up pathway for F&B businesses could help identify strong local companies and connect them with the right expertise, funding, partners and markets at each stage of growth.

4. Create stronger bridges between Saudi Arabia and international markets

Saudi Arabia is attracting enormous interest from international F&B companies.

At the same time, Saudi brands are increasingly capable of expanding beyond the Kingdom.

Both movements could be supported more systematically.

For international companies, there could be clearer access to reliable market intelligence, distributors, retailers, operators, investors and local partners.

For Saudi companies, there could be more support around export readiness, international market research, distributor identification, trade missions and market-entry strategy.

The ecosystem should not just help businesses enter Saudi Arabia.

It should also help Saudi businesses leave it.

5. Map and connect what already exists

Perhaps the most important starting point is not creating something new at all, it is understanding what is already there.

• Which organisations are supporting food businesses?
• Which accelerators have F&B programmes?
• Where is funding available?
• Which associations and communities already exist?
• Which universities, culinary institutions, manufacturers, investors and government entities are active in the sector?
• Which programmes are working particularly well?

Once those pieces are mapped, the question becomes:

How do we connect them? That could be where the biggest opportunity lies.

Rather than building another isolated initiative, there may be more value in creating the connective layer between existing programmes, organisations and industry stakeholders.

Food deserves its own ecosystem

Food may not always attract the same headlines as AI, fintech or emerging technology. However, it is an industry that touches almost every part of society.

• It connects agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, retail, hospitality, tourism, culture and consumer behaviour
• It creates jobs
• It builds local brands
• It attracts international investment

And it has the potential to create Saudi businesses that travel globally.

For an industry with that level of economic and cultural importance, the ecosystem around it deserves greater attention.

Perhaps the opportunity is not to build something entirely new. Perhaps it is to connect what already exists, fill the gaps and create more opportunities for the industry to interact.

That is an area I am increasingly interested in contributing to — particularly around connecting businesses, facilitating market entry, supporting international expansion and creating stronger links between Saudi and global F&B communities.

After a year of being on the ground, I increasingly believe there is an opportunity to help bring some of these pieces together.

I would be very interested to hear from others working across the Saudi food and beverage industry.

What do you think is missing from the current ecosystem?

Which initiatives are already working well but deserve more visibility?

And if we were designing a stronger Saudi F&B ecosystem, what would you prioritise first?