Saudi-Qatar trade reaches QR6.94 billion in 2015

DOHA: Qatar Chamber is organizing the fifth edition of Made in Qatar exhibition in Riyadh from Nov. 6 to 9. This is aimed at increasing the trade between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The exhibition aims to unfold new avenues of cooperation between Qatari entrepreneurs and their Saudi counterparts.
The expo will see participation of all kinds of companies ranging from Qatar’s biggest companies to small and medium enterprises. “The total area of the exhibition will be 10,000 meters, giving ample space for participants to exhibit their products,” the chamber stated.
The exhibition has been planned in the context of Saudi Arabia emerging as the second biggest source of imports after the UAE across the GCC region. This is substantiated in the Quarterly Bulletin on the Foreign Merchandise Trade Statistics for Q1, 2016, Qatar, released recently.
Qatar in particular imports a number of items from Saudi Arabia, including livestock, milk products, iron structures and other metal products, chemicals and other food items.
According to Qatar Chamber, Qatar’s imports from Saudi Arabia increased to QR5.11 billion while exports were at QR1.83 billion in 2015.
In 2014, Qatar’s imports from Saudi Arabia were at around QR5 billion while exports to the Kingdom were at around QR3 billion.
In 2013, Qatar’s imports from Saudi Arabia were at QR4.43 billion while exports from Qatar were at QR3.5 billion. A year before, in 2012, the trade between the two countries was at QR7.3 billion.
With Qatar and Saudi Arabia expanding their commercial exchanges, the bilateral trade reached QR6.94 billion in 2015.
One emerging fact is that Saudi Arabia has been a major trade partner of Qatar.
Though the trade between the two countries declined in 2015 compared to the previous year, the trade has witnessed gradual increase in the past years. The trade between Qatar and Saudi Arabia stood around QR8 billion in 2014, up from QR7.9 billion in 2013.