His Excellency Khalid bin Butti Al Hajeri, Director General of Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), emphasized that Al Dhaid Dates Festival is one of the most important tourism and marketing promotional initiatives on SCCI agenda. The event aims to support the economic development journey in the eastern and central regions of Sharjah. Al Hajeri also confirmed that SCCI dedicates a special attention to Al Dhaid Festival in order to ensure a successful 2nd session that will commence on July 20th 2017.

SCCI, Al Hajeri said, is keen to continue the unprecedented success story it wrote last year. Not only were the reviews and feedback very positive, but last year’s event also attracted remarkable attention on the official, media, and popular levels. In these positive responses, SCCI was commended for this innovative activity which has established Al Dhaid as a unique city that specializes in farming palm trees and producing diverse high-quality dates.

Al Hajeri called on the Sharjah private sector to support the festival and to see in it a golden investment and promotional opportunity especially after it has become a major festival in the Emirate of Sharjah. It enjoys a unique position economically, socially, and culturally. SCCI initiated this festival last year and became an important part of the Emirati heritage. SCCI invested heavily in the Festival to make it a landmark contribution to the future festival industry and to position it as one of the most prominent heritage and economic activities in the emirate.

For his part, Mohammed Musabeh Al-Tunaiji, Director of the Sharjah Chamber in Al Dhaid District and the General Coordinator of the Festival, said that the event’s activities of the three-day long festival were finalized and approved. Al Dhaid Dates Festival takes place from the 20th to the 22nd of July 2017. Officials in the Sharjah Chamber of Al Dhaid District have detected increasing interest from farmers, parties related to the development of the product and the date industry in general, and parties who take special interest in palm trees and fruits as well as local summer crops, like lemons and mangos, which the region is famous for. The Sharjah Chamber in Al Dhaid District looks forward to attracting the largest segment of farmers to participate in the event, display their products, and benefit from the festival and food industries.

Official departments in the central regions, Al-Tunaiji said, welcomed the event and promised to fully support the organization of the Festival given its role in highlighting the cultural and historical heritage of the people of Sharjah in particular and of the United Arab Emirates as a whole.

Through organizing the Festival, SCCI hopes to revive the economy of the central region as a whole, preserve local heritage and history, and showcase an important element of Emirati culture. The Festival will bring farmers together to exchange experiences that would help them improve the quality and productivity of their farms, achieve excellence, and compete productively.

Al Dhaid Dates Festival will include special activities to promote the region’s local summer crops, notably lemons and mangos. These promotional activities seek to encourage the widest segment of farmers to participate in the event through displaying their products and benefiting from the festival. The event will feature many competitions and the winners will receive valuable prizes, including “The Most Beautiful Fruit Basket”.