UAE: Al Dhaid Date Festival kicks off today
The 5th edition of the four-day Al Dhaid Date Festival will kick off on Thursday, 22 July, at Expo Al Dhaid with increased cash prizes for the best dates.
The festival prize money ranges from Dh2,000 to Dh30,000. This year’s edition will have two new categories — local mango and yellow and red figs.
The conditions for entering the competitions include: the dates must be locally produced; the participants must provide dates from his farm or garden. All contestants are required to show required documents upon registration, swear an oath, and visit farms.
The committee also set the specifications and the competition criteria, including that dates should be ripe and void of insect infestation, dead insects, their eggs, their larvae or their residues, and from any visible defects, or abnormal smell or taste, or be contaminated with metallic or sandy traces such as scars; date size should be suitable and the entries should not contain unripe dates; the weight of dates shouldn’t be less than 3kg in the individual items and to be delivered in Mekhrafa (Container made of palm shoots, used for preserving date fruits and displaying them).
The festival is open for visitors daily from 8am to 10pm.
