How many farms are in Saudi Arabia?
Crop farming, livestock and poultry.
20.1K
active registrations list farms & livestock activities — 1.4% of classified registrations.
Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep
20,087 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list farms & livestock activities as of 16 September 2026 — 1.4% of all classified registrations, the 45th-largest of the 64 sectors we track.
7,397 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +54.4% on 2024, faster than the +15% across all sectors.
Riyadh (9,097), Jeddah (1,654) and Makkah (921) lead. Relative to its size, Unaizah is the most concentrated: farms make up 2.5× the share they hold nationally.
57.2% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 10,000 of paid-up capital.
- Active registrations
- 20,087
- 1.4% of classified CRs
- Registered in 2025
- 7,397
- +54.4% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
- Companies
- 57.2%
- 11,484 of 20,087
- Median company capital
- SAR 10k
- Paid-up, main registrations
Where farms are registered
Column height: farms by city · select a highlighted city for its page
Leading cities
Registrations, with concentration vs the national average
- Riyadh9,0971.5×
- Jeddah1,6540.8×
- Makkah9210.9×
- Buraydah7381.5×
- Madinah6710.9×
- Dammam5670.6×
- Unaizah5502.5×
- Najran3220.6×
- Taif2670.6×
- Khobar2590.6×
Concentration compares the sector's share of a city's registrations with its share nationally; 1.0× is average. Highlighted cities are above 1.15×.
Farms & livestock: registrations by year of creation
Still-active registrations by the year they were created, 2015–2025. Older years read lower because cancelled registrations drop out.
Most common activities
Registrations listing each national activity code
- Broiler breeder farming and hatcheries2,327Activity code 014611
- Broiler chicken production1,077Activity code 014617
- Ornamental plant and seedling nurseries1,010Activity code 013001
- Greenhouse installation719Activity code 016104
- Mixed crop and livestock farming710Activity code 015000
- Support activities for animal production691Activity code 016200
- Date palm cultivation and date production690Activity code 012201
- Layer breeder farming and hatcheries685Activity code 014612
Business structures
Legal form of registrations in the sector
- LLC11,18955.7%
- Sole proprietorship8,59142.8%
- JSC1760.9%
- SJSC470.2%
- General partnership450.2%
- Limited partnership270.1%
- Foreign branch7<0.1%
- GCC branch5<0.1%
Common questions
How many farms are there in Saudi Arabia?
20,087 active commercial registrations list farms & livestock activities as of 16 September 2026, according to Ministry of Commerce data. A registration can list several activities, so it may also count in related sectors.
Which city has the most farms?
Riyadh, with 9,097 — 45.3% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 1,654.
Is the number of farms growing?
7,397 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +54.4% on 2024, faster than the +15% across all sectors.
Can a foreign investor set up in farms & livestock in Saudi Arabia?
Most activities are open to 100% foreign ownership with a MISA investment licence, though some carry conditions such as minimum capital, a Saudi partner or sector-regulator approval. Alpha Consultancy confirms the conditions for your exact activity code before you apply.
Figures are Alpha Consultancy's analysis of the Ministry of Commerce's open datasets on the Saudi Open Data Platform (open.data.gov.sa): the register of active commercial registrations (CRs) as of 16 September 2026.
Active CRsinclude main and branch registrations, as in the Ministry's own totals. Registered in a period counts CRs created in that period that were still active on 16 September 2026; registrations since cancelled are not in the source file, so older periods read lower than the number originally issued.
Partial quarter. The Ministry's Q3 2026 file is labelled as the quarter end but only contains registrations created up to 16 September 2026, so every figure here is as of that date and the latest quarter in the charts (marked *) is incomplete.
Sector figures cover the 1,443,322 active registrations (74.7%) that appear in the Ministry of Commerce's activity association file, which lists activities for registrations created up to 31 December 2025. Registrations created after that date are not yet classified. A registration counts once in each sector it is active in, so sectors overlap.
No individual business is identified on these pages; only aggregate counts are published.
Starting a business in farms & livestock?
We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.