How many general wholesale traders are in Saudi Arabia?
Wholesale of household goods, textiles, electronics, machinery and other goods.
102.5K
active registrations list general wholesale traders activities — 7.1% of classified registrations.
Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep
102,513 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list general wholesale traders activities as of 16 September 2026 — 7.1% of all classified registrations, the 4th-largest of the 64 sectors we track.
18,442 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +9.2% on 2024, slower than the +15% across all sectors.
Riyadh (37,242), Jeddah (20,523), Dammam (5,993) lead. Relative to its size, Jeddah is the most concentrated: general wholesale traders make up 1.8× the share they hold nationally.
44.8% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 100,000 of paid-up capital.
- Active registrations
- 102,513
- 7.1% of classified CRs
- Registered in 2025
- 18,442
- +9.2% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
- Companies
- 44.8%
- 45,976 of 102,513
- Median company capital
- SAR 100k
- Paid-up, main registrations
Where general wholesale traders are registered
Column height: general wholesale traders by city · select a highlighted city for its page
Leading cities
Registrations, with concentration vs the national average
- Riyadh37,2421.2×
- Jeddah20,5231.8×
- Dammam5,9931.3×
- Makkah5,2561.0×
- Madinah3,8381.0×
- Khobar3,3641.5×
- Buraydah1,8150.7×
- Khamis Mushait1,5050.8×
- Taif1,4260.6×
- Najran1,2690.5×
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×.
General wholesale traders: 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
- Household electronics and appliances wholesale5,100Activity code 464921
- Food and beverage sales agents4,434Activity code 461015
- Ready-made clothing wholesale3,201Activity code 464150
- Soap and detergent wholesale2,779Activity code 466930
- Household furniture wholesale2,735Activity code 464912
- Beauty products wholesale2,575Activity code 464954
- Medical devices, equipment and supplies wholesale2,257Activity code 464956
- Mobile phone accessories wholesale2,166Activity code 465211
Business structures
Legal form of registrations in the sector
- Sole proprietorship56,43055%
- LLC44,31943.2%
- JSC1,2371.2%
- SJSC1860.2%
- General partnership1420.1%
- Limited partnership920.1%
- GCC branch790.1%
- Foreign branch28<0.1%
General wholesale traders by city
More in retail & trade
Common questions
How many general wholesale traders are there in Saudi Arabia?
102,513 active commercial registrations list general wholesale traders 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 general wholesale traders?
Riyadh, with 37,242 — 36.3% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 20,523.
Is the number of general wholesale traders growing?
18,442 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +9.2% on 2024, slower than the +15% across all sectors.
Can a foreign investor set up in general wholesale traders 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 general wholesale traders?
We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.