Doha: Sales of local vegetables have surged over three-fold in the second season of ‘Qatar Farms Program 2019’ compared to the previous season, according to the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.
The sales of vegetables jumped to 8,226 tonnes in 2019 season compared to 1,969 tonnes in 2018 season, showing an increase of 318 percent. Of the total local vegetable sales in the country, around 20 percent of the vegetables are being sold under this program.
The Ministry of Municipality and Environment, in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, had launched the program last year in collaboration with major commercial outlets including Carrefour, Lulu Hypermarkets, Al Meera and Family Food Center.
The program ran only two months during first season with a total sales of 1,969 tonnes of local vegetables which encouraged the authorities to launch the second season in December 2018 in collaboration with over 10 major commercial outlets.
As per the statistics related by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment represented by the Agricultural Affairs Department, under the program the highest local vegetables were sold out at Al Meera, accounting 56 percent of total sales, followed by Lulu Hypermarkets with 19 percent of the total sales. Carrefour and Family Food Center contributed 15 and seven percent of the total sales, respectively.
The program aims at involving commercial outlets in selling large quantity of local vegetables where they used to showcase imported vegetables.
The program also helped local vegetables to compete with imported one breaking the monopoly of imported products. The rising sale of local vegetables encouraged farmers to increase the production.
One of the major achievements of the program is that it helped bring down the prices of vegetables in the local market by creating healthy competition giving more option to consumers. The program served as a platform to introduce the local vegetables and its value as a result these vegetables became first choice for customers.
According to a commercial outlet which is participating in the program, local vegetables showcased under the program attracted large number of customers.
“We joined the program from Day One since it was launched last year”, a senior official from Lulu Hypermarkets told The Peninsula.
He said that Lulu has dedicated a corner at its outlets where local vegetables are being displayed prominently under the program.
“The local vegetables at Lulu Hypermarkets attract large number of customers as the demand surged due to the program enabling customers to know about local vegetables,” said the official.
Under the program, fresh vegetables from over 140 local farms are being showcased at a number of major commercial outlets in loose form giving option to the customers to buy as much as they want.
The program enables local farms to supply their produce to commercial outlets without middlemen. The initiatives aim at providing reasonable prices to local farmers for their investments and handwork by offering farm fresh vegetables to the customers at competitive prices.
The good yield also encourages local farms to increase their products.
