Brazil to help Saudi Arabia with food supplies

RIYADH (Reuters) - Brazil and Saudi Arabia want to work together to help supply the desert kingdom's food needs, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Sunday.

"Brazil can be a strategic partner for Saudi Arabia in food security," Lula told Saudi business leaders in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

He later told reporters that Saudi Arabian and Brazilian companies might establish partnerships to produce goods needed by the kingdom, but he gave no details.

A Saudi delegation will visit Brazil by December to examine agricultural opportunities in detail, Michel Alaby, secretary general of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce said, citing Brazil's experience with chicken, meat, soya or corn.

Saudi Arabia has said it is in talks with several countries such as Sudan, Egypt, Ukraine, Pakistan and Turkey to allow Saudi companies to establish projects to help supply it with food such as wheat, barley, soya bean or rice.

Lula also said Brazilian miner Vale (VALE5.SA) (VALE.N) might cooperate with Saudi Arabia to exploit ore and produce aluminum.

"We are aware of the fact that Saudi Arabia is interested and conversations with Vale company and the business community in Saudi Arabia present extraordinary possibilities for us," Lula told a news conference, speaking through a translator.

"Vale is perfectly capable of exploiting any kind of ore, even bauxite, of which you, I have been told, have a lot in Saudi Arabia," he added.

"We have also actually mastered the expertise to mine bauxite ore and transform it into aluminum and as Saudi Arabia has a lot of energy available all this makes such possibilities easier," Lula said.