Visitors view exhibits at the Qafco Flower and Vegetable Show 2014 yesterday. PICTURES: Shemeer Rasheed
Some of the winners of the show.
Peter Alagos
Business Reporter
The annual flower and vegetable show, organised by the Qatar Fertiliser Company (Qafco), is an ideal platform for businesses and budding entrepreneurs to build and expand their networking with industry players in the horticulture and hospitality sectors, an official said yesterday.
Qafco’s Ammonia-4 head Neelakantan Rajasekaran said that even months before the staging of the next Qafco Flower and Vegetable Show, aspiring participants would usually inquire about details of the next expo.
“The event serves an important platform for both amateurs and professionals to build their networking since the event is well-attended by industry stakeholders and even families,” he explained.
“The event also encourages the sharpening and honing of skills in horticulture and other related disciplines.”
The official said the participants would undergo months of training before joining the event.
Another benefit of the event, Rajasekaran observed, was that participants could expand their credentials and strengthen their credibility with future clients from the certificates, medals, cash prizes and sponsorships they receive from participating in the flower and vegetable show.
“Many professional hoteliers like to associate themselves with Qafco because of the legacy that this event carries,” he said.
During the event, Minister of Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada commended Qafco for institutionalising the event, which has been running for the past 27 years.
Qafco’s Hamed al-Marwani said the annual flower and vegetable show was one of the company’s corporate social responsibility programmes.
“We are a socially-responsible company. Qafco is one of the first companies in the Middle East to employ social responsibility programmes. We care about the gathering of our employees and their families as well as the community around us and we involve them in such activities. And this is the biggest activity or ceremony outside Doha that showcases the beauty and artistic talents of every participant,” al-Marwani said.
Aside from being the organiser of Qatar’s largest flower and vegetable show, al-Marwani said Qafco was “really the pride of every Qatari today” for being the largest single fertiliser producer in the world.
“We produce about 5.6mn tonnes of urea and 3.5mn tonnes of ammonia; this consists about 15% of the exported urea in the world,” al-Marwani told Gulf Times.