If pork is not consumed in Saudi Arabia, how common are pigs?

There are many predominantly Muslim countries that raise pigs only for the tourist to consume. Saudi Arabia is not one of them. The Jewish counterpart to halal is the term kosher, or food that has been prepared to conform with Jewish religious beliefs and law. Jews look to their religious texts to determine what is kosher. read more

Not so much in Saudi Arabia, some are secretly permitted for development of vaccines! Google Halal vaccines and you'll see that there is a movement in Saudi to get away from using pigs. read more

Thus, from roughly 500 BC to the time of the founding of Islam, pork was an uncommon meat in the Middle East. Though pigs were occasionally raised and consumed, it was still not an encouraged practice for most people. My main source for this post is The Cambridge World History of Food's page on Hogs. read more

At present, it is not possible to legally buy pork in the KSA. At one time, ARAMCO, the oil company with thousands of non-Saudi, non-Muslim employees, had a dispensation to sell pork products at its commissary in Dhahran. read more