Souq Waqif honey and dates exhibition opens Sunday

The Souq Waqif Honey and Dates exhibition will be held from Sunday until March 11 at Souq Waqif’s Al Ahmed Square, the organising committee of the festival at the Private Engineering Office has announced.According to local Arabic daily Arrayah, the first edition of this festival will see the participation of 160 farms and companies from 25 Arab, Asian and European countries – including Oman, Tunisia, Libya, Palestine and Georgia – displaying 50 types of honey and 50 varieties of dates.Khalid Saif al-Suwaidi, general supervisor of the exhibition, said the organising committee has been working for a long time to prepare for this exhibition, making sure that its timing is suitable by holding it ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.The time is suitable for both consumers and exhibitors, especially local suppliers as they have enough quantities to display.Al-Suwaidi said that 31 Qatari companies that import honey will take part, in addition to 26 local producers.Further, there will be more than 10 Qatari companies that import and produce dates.He noted that the exhibition, which will be held annually, also displays other products related to honey and dates, such as sweets, jam, syrup and juices.There will be constant co-ordination with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), with daily samples to be taken from the exhibits throughout the duration of the event for checking.The opening will take place at 4pm Sunday. After that, the exhibition will be open to the public from 9am until 12 noon, and from 4pm-9pm daily.