The third Al Dhaid Dates Festival kicked off on Friday evening at Al Dhaid Expo Centre. Over 50 exhibitors, including national date producers, retail traders, and farmers, are participating in the festival, organised by Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) from October 6 to 8.
The festival’s opening was attended by SCCI Board Member Jamal Mohammed Sultan Bin Huwaiden Al Ketbi, SCCI Assistant Director-General of the Communication and Business Sector Abdulaziz Mohammed Shattaf, and the festival's general coordinator, Mohammad Musabah Al Tunaiji. Attendees explored the festival showrooms and met with exhibitors to learn about the date varieties on display. They also inspected producer family booths and their many cultural and traditional industries and product offerings.
The first day’s events witnessed a large turnout of farmers and palm farm owners from Sharjah and other Emirates across the nation to participate in the festival’s competitions and auctions, including the Al Heseel Date Contest and the Luxury Dates Contest. The exhibition booths welcomed thousands of visitors who came to peruse displays showcasing the finest date varieties and purchase multifunctional palm frond products.
Shattaf highlighted the festival’s role in preserving the deep-rooted cultural and heritage legacies of generations of Emiratis, supporting palm farm owners, advancing palm cultivation and date production practices, and reaping the optimal fruits the industry has to offer. It accomplishes all this by providing farm owners with all the resources they need to facilitate more efficient farming, production, and marketing, as well as offering a platform for the exchange of expertise and experiences and showcasing the top approved technologies and practices in palm cultivation and date production.
For his part, Al Tunaiji noted that the Al Dhaid Dates Festival has witnessed persistent successes year after year, with an increased turnout this year of participants coming to exhibit their farms’ choicest fruits and compete in the competitions organised by the Chamber to boost the status of palm trees and encourage their cultivation and care.
The exhibition showrooms, which welcome visitors daily from 10am to 9pm, also witnessed a high turnout of producer families whose distinctive participation is on display through their extensive offerings of palm-based and traditional handicrafts.