DOHA: The first Local Dates Exhibition at Souq Waqif has sold more than 20 tonnes of dates of different varieties in the last two days.
“Hundreds of visitors are daily visiting the exhibition to buy dates and the sales are high since the exhibition was opened on Sunday. We are expecting more demand during the coming weekend,” said a source at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. “The quantity of dates offered daily at the exhibition from local farms is about 15 tonnes,” he added.
He also said that the Ministry was planning to organise the exhibition every year, adding that 40 farms and six local companies are participating in the ongoing exhibition which would run until October 22.
The exhibition is being organised by the Agricultural Sector of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment as part of the great interest of the State in supporting and encouraging local production.
Minister of Environment and Municipality H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi said during the exhibition opening that Qatar’s self-sufficiency in the production of dates had reached 87 percent, and organising such exhibition was meant to encourage farmers to market their products of dates, and convert them into consumable products in a proper way.
The number of active farms in the country is 916, most of them are palm growing and produce different types of dates. The total cultivated area of date palms in Qatar is estimated at 2,350 hectares, while the total production of dates reached about 30,000 tonnes last year, while the total number of palm trees within the farms is more than 500,000.
The types of dates that were imported from neighbouring countries are now being produced locally, and the country imports about 4,000 tonnes of dates annually.
