RIYADH: UAE-based Hotpack Global plans to establish a specialized food packaging project in Saudi Arabia worth an estimated SR1 billion ($266 million) to produce environment-friendly products. The Emirati manufacturer of disposable food packaging products has signed an agreement with the Saudi Ministry of Industry for the project, the company said in a statement. To be spread over a period of seven years, the deal will pave the way for establishing one of the largest specialized food packaging projects in the Kingdom yet. The aim of the project is to manufacture a variety of packaging products including environmentally friendly, recyclable, as well as biodegradable ones. The move comes amid a push to reduce packaging waste which continues to rise around the world each year. As part of the deal, the two parties will also work on exploiting some types of agricultural waste in an attempt to make it one of the basic components of raw materials needed for both manufacturing and production inputs in the near future. The signing of the agreement took place in the presence of Saudi Investment Minister Khaled Al-Falih and Deputy Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Osama Al-Zamil. The deal comes after Hotpack announced its plans in April last year to invest 350 million dirhams ($95.30 million) over a period of 10 years to build as many as 10 biodegradable packaging plants in Malaysia. The company said the project will be executed in partnership with Free The Seed Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian manufacturer of biodegradable products from rice straw, facilitated by Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corp. The Malaysian plant will be Hotpack’s first-ever factory in Southeast Asia. The construction work of the first 3,200 sq. m production plant, located next to Free the Seed’s existing facility, was to begin in May 2022 and be completed in August 2022, the company had said. The first facility is expected to produce 70 million units of fast-moving consumer goods packaging products per year. On the other hand, the deal with the Emirati packing products manufacturer is part of the Saudi Ministry of Investment’s goal to place the Kingdom among the top-performing markets for investments. The ministry’s mission is to promote Saudi Arabia as a world-class investment destination, attract and retain investors, and expand their investments, for the benefit of sustainable national economic growth.