*Dates festival open from July 27-Aug 10
The Seventh Local Dates Festival in Qatar for 2022 season, which is organised by the Ministry of Municipality represented by the Department of Agricultural Affairs, is set to start on Wednesday in cooperation with Souq Waqif Services Centre and will continue until August 10, 2022 with the participation of a wide range of local farms.
The organisation of this event comes within the framework 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 farm owners and those interested in dates cultivation, in addition to promoting the dates cultivars across the country.
Director of Agricultural Affairs Department Yousuf Khalid al-Khulaifi affirmed that the festival intends to promote the production of dates, including the entire dates cultivars and encourage the owners of local farms to further offer and market their produce 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 pointed out that the festival is considered an opportunity to exchange experiences between the farmers to increase the area of the cultivated land and contribute to developing this sector and subsequently produce the best cultivars.
Director of Souq Waqif, Mohammed al-Salem confirmed that a suitable venue for the festival has been selected and it is equipped with the necessary structures, including the camp in which the festival will be held at Souq Waqif's Al Ahmad Square. The festival will open its doors to visitors from 3 pm until 9pm except on Fridays when it will be open from 1pm until 10pm.
More than 80 farms are participating in this festival where the entire participating entities will roll out their production from various cultivars of local dates.
The festival's organising committee has determined several requirements and prerequisites for the entities that are willing to participate, including that the entities should make sure that the dates are good, clean and free of insects, while a team of professionals from the Department of Agricultural Affairs will embark on collecting samples 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 the precautionary measures to reduce the spread of Coronavirus, calling on the visitors to adhere to the precautionary measures.
