Al Saeed trading company has grown rapidly to become a household name for the H.S.A. group in Yemen, while identifying the importance of foodstuff requirement. They started by importing essential food commodities for serving Yemen Market where foods mainly rely on imports in order to benefit the final consumers.
The Group owns and operates two state of the art Bühler built Flour Mills with a combined milling capacity of 7,500 MT/day and has silo storage capacity to store wheat for over 400,000 MT in addition to storage of bagged commodities. The Group also owns a sugar refinery with 2000 MT/day refining capacity.
Attending last month’s IAOM Mideast and Africa Conference and Expo in Dubai, he was named winner of the Regional Leader Award to serve consistent food supply in Yemen – to find out more, a Milling and Grain representative interviewed Mr Walid Saeed at his Dubai office, Midstar Commodity Management Ltd.
Can you tell me about your company and the history that surrounds it?
We are part of a H.S.A. Business Group of companies, which has been in the business since 1938. The H.S.A. Group of Companies is very well diversified in different industries and regions. The group manufacturings are a very big part of the overall business, in addition to trading of Agri-commodities & services.
When the government liberalised the subsidies, the private sector played a positive role and that’s the point Group decided to invest in the milling industry while understanding the importance of playing a role in the supply chain of the food industry. It was a major move for the Group to move from import of wheat and wheat flour to invest in the wheat milling industry.
What are the demographics of your company?
The Group is very well diversified in all forms and even though Yemen is its solid base and where we come from, the group expanded into different countries worldwide. I am honoured to be a member of board of directors of H.S.A. group with primary responsibility of a handling the strategy of the business for the commodities with focus on agricultural commodities.
I have been associated with a number of organisations in the agriculture sector and also had the honour to serve as one of the Council Member of GAFTA (The Grain and Feed Trade Association) for three years. I am also council member of IAOM Middle East and North Africa.
Do you think the food/milling industry can meet Yemen’s needs?
The private sector has been playing a major role in food supply into the Yemen market after the privatisation, and Yemenis are in general very entrepreneurial business people always driven with continuous growth & improvement in their respective field.
In recent times, although the situation in Yemen has been difficult, the private sector performance in order to serve the country has been maintained in these difficult times and been able to supply the essential commodities to the Yemen market and its needs and requirements, but surely not to its full extent as the gap between demand & supply is increasing with each passing day.
That’s the reason, the NGOs and the World Food Program have to fill the gaps in food supply into the market and address the needy, especially for their basic foods.
So yes, absolutely food security is a major concern. It is important to note that on the economy side, there is also the inability for people to pay for goods because of high unemployment, so they have been affected and the high inflation due to the currency devaluation which has affected largely the people purchasing power, so it has been a very difficult situation in Yemen overall.
How would you say Midstar have helped solve these food needs?
Midstar is part of the H.S.A Group and was able to assist the food supply to the country.
When crises happen, most of the businesses start shrinking due to the risk involved but when you are in business of supply of essential commodities, one can only think to go forward and work to ensure the supplies are intact and as wheat flour is a basic essential commodity, its an essential basis food for the people and must be covered, we have to work hard to ensure the regular supplies with best resources available.
Midstar stood by its commitment to ensure the supplies in order to continue the bulk wheat imports & flour milling operations even in the difficult situation that Yemen was going through.
One of the Group wheat flour mills was out of operation for almost a year due to war but with good support; some were fixed in a short span of time by repairing the mills including silos and power plants, which were affected.
Now that mill is running at near full capacity. And at the same time the World Food Programme took part of our milling capacities for the needy and for distribution to the people. This really helped in the terms of utilising the excess available capacity that we were able to offer. By next year hopefully we will be back to the same position that we were in three years ago.
Did you feel honoured by the industry this week?
This award is for each and every person in the group and all the people who stood all the time to make this business run and I am very honoured to receive this prestigious award.
Also, this award has highlighted the Yemen food concern and Yemeni people in general who are in need of assistance & support in this difficult time and we are very honoured that the milling industry recognised the same in order to set an example for encouraging others for securing the basic food for Yemen.
I hope the influence of this award can be shared with other sector industries as well as other countries.
What are your final thoughts?
The Group has an obligation towards society and to be a good citizen, society has been good to the Group for so many years. The humanitarian contribution to society has been positive and met the need for distribution of food to the needy with their capabilities at the time of need.
We believe that whatever we are in today is due to the love and support of Yemeni people and it is the same love and support we are sharing back by doing whatever we can while ensuring the basic essential food supplies for the Yemeni society.
Business should always be two ways in direction and with the support of our people; we are able to run our operations while generating jobs as well as ensuring the food supplies of people.
Once again, I would like to dedicate this award to our Yemeni people and our group and to all who made it happen. Business has to have meaning and I think that success comes from the long-term relationships with people and stakeholders who always stick with you whether in good or bad times.
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