File picture used for representation.
DOHA: The Agriculture Affairs Department of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment is gearing up to organise Local Dates Exhibition tomorrow at Souq Waqif.
Over 40 local farms as well as some local companies will participate in the exhibition.
“The aim of organising this exhibition is to support local farms by marketing the dates produced by these farms and encouraging farmers to grow palm trees to benefit economically,” the Ministry of Municipality announced on its official Twitter account.
In order to promote local production of fruit, the Ministry had earlier launched “palm trees in homes competition” at the Third Local Dates Festival which took place in July this year. The Festival had also been organised at Souq Waqif.
The exhibition will continue till October 22 at Souq Waqif from 10am to 9pm.
Qatar is working to achieve 100 percent self-sufficiency in dates in few years. The Ministry said that the total number of farms registered in the State of Qatar is 1,310, of which 916 are active farms, most of them grow palm trees and produce different types of dates.
Last years, in order to encourage people to plant the palm tree seedlings on their own, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment offered seedlings to people at low prices. Every citizen was allowed to purchase maximum five seedlings.
The farmers are now producing fruit varieties that were not present in Qatar. The focus now is on producing the most demanded dates like Khalas dates.
The types of dates that were imported from Saudi Arabia in high prices are now produced locally and are available in the market at reasonable price.
The Agriculture Affairs Department at the ministry is keen to provide support for the cultivation of dates locally through spreading awareness and using modern technologies that will contribute of increasing and developing the quality of dates.
The total cultivated area of palm trees is about 2,350 hectares, and the total production of dates is about 30,000 tonnes per year.
