Arizona to prosecute Saudi company over water use

Fondomonte grows alfalfa in Arizona, which is shipped to Saudi Arabia to feed dairy cattle. Photo: Alamy
Arabian Gulf Business Insight | 14 November 2024

Arizona to prosecute Saudi company over water use
        
By Neil Halligan    
  • Lawsuit to halt pumping
  • Food security issues
  • Farms grow alfalfa 

The attorney general of the US state of Arizona is set to launch legal proceeding in the next two weeks against the Saudi dairy company Almarai over groundwater pumping on two farms in the state.

Fondomonte, an Almarai subsidiary, grows alfalfa for animal feed on 6,000 acres in Butler Valley, La Paz County, Arizona, which is shipped to Saudi Arabia to feed dairy cattle.

Laws in the state allow virtually unfettered groundwater pumping in rural areas, and Fondomonte is not breaking any laws.

However, in March this year, Arizona’s governor, Katie Hobbs, said four leases held by Fondomonte in the Butler Valley had been allowed to expire. 

She promised to “protect Arizona’s water security”, and said she plans to use a local law that makes it illegal for one property owner to create a nuisance that affects others, local media reported.

The state’s prosecutor, Kris Mayes, speaking to local media on Tuesday, said she would be filing a lawsuit “in the next two weeks’’ to halt groundwater pumping.

Mayes said local hydrologists are completing an analysis of the water systems to prove her case. 

She has also raised concerns about Fondomonte obtaining approval from the Arizona Department of Water Resources to drill a new well on its alfalfa farm in Vicksburg, La Paz.

Arizona rents out parcels of its vast amounts of state-owned land to private companies, and those leases in turn generate a profit for the State Land Trust. 

Fondomonte bought and leased thousands of acres in Arizona and California in 2014, as did other Gulf states, who invested heavily in overseas operations to cover their food security issues. 

Who's involved?

Whos Involved?

Carbon land deals




  • 25 Mar 2025 - Online
    Landless Voices: Land & Climate
    05 May 2025 - Washington DC, US
    World Bank Land Conference 2025: Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action: Moving from Awareness to Action
    07 Oct 2025 - Cape Town, South Africa
    Land, Life and Society: International conference on the road to ICARRD+20
  • Languages



    Special content



    Archives


    Latest posts