Local Dates Festival Kicks off in Souq Waqif

7th Local Dates Festival

The 7^th Local Dates Festival in Qatar for the 2022 season, which is organized by the Ministry of Municipality represented by the Department of Agricultural Affairs and Souq Waqif, kicked off today and will continue until August 10, 2022 from 3pm until 9pm with the participation of over 80 domestic farms.

The event comes within the framework of Qatar's great interest in supporting and encouraging the domestic production of the entire national products, including dates in conjunction with the season of dates production in Qatar within the strenuous efforts dedicated to achieving food security, commitment to developing agriculture sector and palm trees, supporting farms owners and those interested in dates cultivation, in addition to promoting the dates cultivars across the country.

On this occasion, Director of the Agricultural Affairs Department Yousuf Khalid Al Khulaifi affirmed that the festival intends to promote the production of dates, and introduce their various cultivars, in addition to encouraging the owners of local farms to further offer and market their products from dates directly to the beneficiaries which would reflect positively on their sales volume and strengthen their abilities to increase production and upgrade the marketing methods. He said that for the first time the 7th edition witnesses the participation of some farms to offer their domestically produced fruits as an experience to demonstrate the farms owners' preparation to organize local fruits festival where cultivars of local fruits exist, including Figs, pamper, cultivars of lemon and others, explaining that the annual production exceeded 82 percent of the self-sufficiency ratio, which is a distinctive and excellent percentage, as the ministry aspires to improve the local product through the support offered by the ministry to farms owners such as land preparation, fertilization, pollination et al.

He confirmed that a date festival will be organized during the upcoming period, which is complementary to dates festival, where 100 dates drying rooms had been distributed, to be further utilized during the upcoming dates festival in the pursuit of improving the quality of products.

Director of Technical Affairs at Private Engineering Office Abdulrahman Alnaemi emphasized that the designated venue of the festival has been equipped with the essential tools and structure by Souq waqif management office where the festival camp has been set up at Souq Waqif's Al Ahmad Square, pointing out that the market is characterized by popularity and great turnout from visitors since the market is deemed a historical center and an important tourist utility for citizens, residents and visitors, as well as its privileged location in the center of Doha, which makes it accessible to all. He added that Souq Waqif is committed to participating in such events for the sake of supporting the local farms, indicating that the festival, which will operate for 15 days, will be attracting over 80 local professional farms where the entire participating entities would roll out their production from various local dates cultivars during the festival event.

The festival's organizing committee has determined several requirements and prerequisites for the entities that are willing to participate, including that the entities must make sure that the dates are good, clean and free of insects. A team of professionals from the Department of Agricultural Affairs will embark on collecting samples of the dates for further examination and analysis to ensure that they are free of hazardous materials, including pesticide residues. The committee also affirmed its commitment to pursuing precautionary measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus, calling on the audience to adhere to the precautionary measures.

(QNA)