The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is reportedly selling off its assets in Canada and will stop buying Canadian wheat and barley, in the latest escalation in the sudden diplomatic dispute between the two countries.
Saudi Arabia’s main state wheat buying agency has told grains exporters it will no longer buy Canadian wheat and barley.
“As of Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018, Saudi Grains Organization (SAGO) can no longer accept milling wheat or feed barley cargoes of Canadian origin to be supplied,” the notice to grain traders said.
Canada sold 66,000 tonnes of wheat to Saudi Arabia last year, and slightly more the year before that, Statistics Canada data shows.
In the first five months of the year, Canada has yet to book any wheat sales this year. But Canada sold 66,000 tonnes of barley to Saudi Arabia in 2016, and twice that last year.
In 2015, Saudia Arabia-based Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company was part of a consortium that bought a controlling interest in the Canadian Wheat Board for $250 million.
The move to block Canadian grain is the Kingdom’s attempt to punish Canada economically after Global Affairs Canada publicly criticized the Kingdom for jailing dissidents, enraging the regime.
The national Saudi Arabian airline, Saudia, said this week that it would suspend all flights between the country and Canada, starting next week.
Important Announcement from <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/SAUDIA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#SAUDIA</a> <a href=”https://t.co/HgrQbZYvd4″>pic.twitter.com/HgrQbZYvd4</a>
—@Saudi_Airlines
The airline currently flies two routes to Canada, one to Riyadh and one to Jeddah.
But the Saudis don’t have a lot of economic weapons at their disposal. The Financial Times reported Wednesday that the regime has ordered its central bank and massive sovereign wealth fund to sell off any Canadian assets, which the newspaper estimated to be a “fairly small” fraction of its total $100 billion in foreign holdings.
The Canadian dollar plunged on the report, before traders realized the limited scope of the moves.
The Persian Gulf country is, however, a major supplier of oil to Canada, with about nine per cent of Canada’s oil imports coming from Saudi Arabia.