by Marwa Yahya
CAIRO, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Egyptians crowded in the Orman Botanical Garden in Cairo to buy dates, an essential food in the holy month of Ramadan, which falls on April 2 this year.
Dubbed "Future Fruits," the second edition of the Cairo International Date Palm Festival kicked off on March 24 and will last until March 31, under the auspicious of the Ministries of Industry and Agriculture and the Arab Economic Unit Council.
Traditionally, Muslim people break their fasting with nutritious dates before eating the main fast-breaking meal during Ramadan.
"The festival offers at least 25 percent discount on several types of products as a contribution in mitigating the impact of rising prices recently," said Ashraf al-Far, secretary-general of the Arab Date Federation (ADF).
Egypt produced 1.8 million tons of dates in 2021, which constituted 23 percent of the Arab country's production and 18 percent of the international production, al-Far told Xinhua.
He highlighted that Egypt has exported nearly 50,000 tons of dates in 2021 and targets reaching 200,000 tons in the coming few years.
Already owning more than 14 million date palm trees, Egypt has decided to plant over 2.5 million new trees of internationally popular types, such as Barhi, which is considered as the sweetest and creamiest of its species.
Ramadan is the high season of date sales in Arab countries, and nearly 60 companies from several Arab countries have taken part in the event.
The prices of date in the festival range from 15 Egyptian pounds to 300 Egyptian pounds (nearly 0.8 U.S. dollars to 16.3 U.S. dollars) with 25-30 percent less than the markets, said Amro Sayad, marketing manager of Joud Food Industries Company selling Egyptian and Saudi dates.
For Moftah Sohaym, a representative of a Libyan agriculture company, the international festivals of such kind are the best windows for advertising the Libyan dates.
"I'm happy with our participation in the event, and I hope the Egyptians will like our products," Sohaym said.
"I bought different types of Egyptian and Saudi dates with 24.5 U.S. dollars," said Noha Atef, a 33-year-old housewife while touring the festival's booths.
"Here I can taste all types of soft, dry, and low sugar dates," the woman said, noting she chose the dried and the nut-stuffed dates because her family likes to put them in hot milk for breaking the fasting in Ramadan. ■