People visiting the Second Local Dates Exhibition, organised by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, at Souq Waqif, yesterday.
Organised by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, the Second Local Dates Exhibition for 2019 season kicked off yesterday with the participation of over 50 local farms and Hassad Food Company.
The exhibition aims to promote the local product of dates, in addition to encouraging the owners of local farms to find an outlet to display and market their production of dates and to sale their dates directly to the public.
It is also an opportunity to exchange experiences between local date producers and dates processors in a way that contributes to the development of this important sector to increase palm plantations and produce the best varieties.
The event will continue until October 26 and opens from 3pm to 9pm except on Friday from 2pm to 10pm.
Assistant Undersecretary for Agriculture and Fisheries Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani, Director of Souq Waqif, Mohammed Al Salem; Director of Agricultural Affairs Department of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Yousef Khaled Al Khulaifi; and a number of other officials of the Ministry attended the opening.
“The main objective of the exhibition is to increase the production of local farms and to encourage their participation in such exhibition. This year the number of participating local farms reached 56 farms compared to 46 last year. Some farms are participating in the exhibition for the first time,” said Al Khulaifi.
He also said that the self-sufficiency of dates is 86 percent and most of the qualities here in Qatar are good qualities. Also the prices in the exhibition are suitable for all visitors depending upon the qualities which are being offered at the exhibition, he added.
The 10-day event will provide platform to local farms to market their products directly to the public and reflected positively on their sales volume which will encourage them to increase production.
The organising committee of the exhibition has set a number of requirements to participate in the exhibition, among them that the dates are good and clean and free of insects and impurity. It also should be the production of this year.
A team of specialists in the Agricultural Affairs Department will take samples from the participating farms for examination and analysis to make sure they are free of toxic substances and the residual effect of pesticides.
The total sales of the local dates exhibition in its first edition for the season 2018 was (39,551) kg, while the value of the dates sold in the exhibition was about QR3,27,000.
