The Board of Directors of the National Agricultural Development Company (NADEC) approved the strategic business plan for the period from 2027 to 2031, with capital investments amounting to 5 billion riyals ($1.33 billion), aimed at enhancing the company’s strategic transformation, expanding its activities, and supporting the food security system.
The company explained, in a statement published on the Saudi Stock Exchange “Tadawul” website on Tuesday, that the plan is based on three main axes, including strengthening the core business, expanding new growth engines, and strengthening the foundations supporting business sustainability, through five interconnected strategic priorities.
In the dairy, juice and food manufacturing sectors, the company aims to expand the scope of distribution and increase the customer base, in addition to developing sales channels and products in a way that contributes to raising commercial efficiency.
As for the protein sector, Nadec plans to expand into slaughterhouses and red meat processing facilities, take advantage of its supply capabilities and activate strategic partnerships, to provide value-added products to the retail and business sectors.
In the context of enhancing growth, the company aims to raise productivity and operational efficiency by improving integrated planning for supply and demand, raising the efficiency of manufacturing, distribution and procurement, in addition to enhancing the security of feed and supply chains, reducing costs and waste, and increasing operational flexibility.
In the agricultural sector, the plan includes developing activities based on technical solutions and agriculture in protected environments, with a focus on crops with high value and seed capabilities, in a way that achieves a balance between food security goals and investment returns.
The company also aims to provide integrated food solutions by linking the dairy, protein and agricultural sectors, and benefiting from the distribution network to serve the food services sector.
NADEC stated that the implementation of the plan will modify the growth of current activities and the expansion of projects and investment initiatives, expecting the financial impact of the plan to appear gradually starting in 2027.
Richard Teng, co-CEO of the Binance platform, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, said that asset withdrawals from the platform have returned to normal levels, stressing that the company has a “very strong” financial position, at a time when North Korea rejected US accusations of being behind the theft of crypto assets worth $6.3 billion that targeted the platform.
Binance is trying to contain the repercussions of the hack, which may be the largest of its kind ever, after its customers withdrew net assets worth $4.72 billion as of Monday, and the company launched a promotional campaign to limit the exit of funds and attract new users.
Teng said, during the Hong Kong FinTech Week event on Tuesday, that withdrawals witnessed a noticeable increase during the first 24 hours of the hack, which is expected, but then they returned to their usual levels.
He added: “The company has a very strong financial position,” noting that the platform has re-provided 95 percent of the affected tokens, and that it is able to cover these losses.
“Binance” had said in a post on the “X” platform, earlier Tuesday, that deposits on an hourly basis exceeded withdrawals, considering that this reflects an improvement in user activity and the stability of financial flows.
Over the weekend, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accused North Korea of responsibility for stealing crypto assets worth more than $6 billion, in an operation that caused widespread shock in the digital currency sector.
North Korea rejects the accusations
On the other hand, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, described the American accusations as “absurd rhetoric,” considering it evidence of Washington’s continued hostile approach toward Pyongyang, according to what the official North Korean Central News Agency reported on Tuesday.
Kim said that the FBI is trying to portray North Korea as a “cybercrime country” by claiming that a hacking group backed by Pyongyang is involved in the operation.
She added that “the American claim is an absurd speech and is not new,” and described what she considered misleading international public opinion, by making North Korea appear to be behind all cybercrimes around the world, as a “dangerous political provocation” against her country.
Pyongyang has not yet responded publicly to the initiatives of US President Donald Trump, which he put forward earlier this year to resume diplomacy based on holding summits. Kim said that her country would reconsider issues that she did not specify, in light of what she described as “the hostile and unpalatable American position.”
