Exporting water from the desert? An analysis of the virtual water content of Saudi Arabian agricultural exports

This article was originally published with errors. This version has been corrected/amended. Please see Erratum (https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2018.1433556).

Abstract

This study applies input-output analysis to evaluate and trace Saudi Arabia’s virtual water exports arising from exports of agricultural products. Saudi Arabia’s total virtual exports in 2011 were around 2.42 km³, mainly to neighbouring Arab countries. This amount is enough to meet the water demand of the country’s entire population. Agricultural exports seem economically beneficial only because they rely on groundwater; however, since the indirect cost of desalinating equivalent amounts of water for domestic purposes is much higher, a better strategy would have been to direct those water resources towards domestic needs.

Keywords:

• Input-output analysis
• virtual water
• Saudi Arabia
• groundwater

View correction statement:

Erratum

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Mohammed Al-Hamdi for his valuable comments on the early version of this manuscript.

Notes

This article was originally published with errors. This version has been corrected/amended. Please see Erratum (https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2018.1433556).