Date festival to double in size

Building on the success of the last year edition, the organising committee of Emirates International Date Palm Festival have decided to double the size of the show this year, scheduled to take place on November 21 -26, 2011 in Abu Dhabi.

Spreading over an area of three exhibition halls at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), the festival will showcase the product offerings of 200 exhibitors from 17 countries, contributing to the cultural and commercial development of dates.

 The festival will be held under the patronage of Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nayhan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE, Minister of Presidential Affairs and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, and is organised by Turret Media.

Mohamed Jalal Al Reyaysa, Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee for the festival, said: "We anticipate wider popular interest for this round of the festival. Our anticipation springs from the popularity the festival achieved in the last round and from the wide variety of events planned this year. This is also an occasion for exchange of views and expertise among producers, experts and specialists of date palm as well as among top officials from the date's industry."

Qaboos Khalid, Project Director of the Festival, said: “This substantial increase in size is due to the huge demand and overwhelming response received by the international and regional dates manufacturers. They are confident that their participation will tap the dynamic and potentially enormous emerging dates markets; and will also make brisk business during the six days of the event.”

In 2010, the amount of dates sold to individuals, buyers and companies during the festival exceeded Dh18.4 million. More than 90 per cent of the dates manufacturing companies participating last year have returned for this year’s edition. Top exhibitors include: Al Foah Company, Al Dahra Agriculture, Al Ain Diary, Onaizah Dates Factory and Al Madinah Dates.

“The hallmark hosted buyer programme maximises the sales potential for the companies by bringing in 50 international dates buyers and arranging one-to-one meetings with them in a very structured and highly effective way,” Khalid added.

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