eighth edition of Emirates International Date Palm Festival (EIDPF),the region’s largest specialized event dedicated to dates, drew over 20,000 visitors and facilitated sales of 9,000 tones of date products generating business transactions valued AED180 million.
Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA), EIDPF 2014 ran from November24 to 29 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), organized by Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) in association with Date Palm Friends Society and SIAL Middle East, the festival attracted over 200 exhibitors specializing in farming and manufacture of dates from16countries.
Mohammed Jalal Al Rayssi, Head of EIDPF 2014 Organizing Committee, said: "We are proud of the success achieved by this year’s edition as well as the business opportunities it has created for the participating companies from all over the world. We look forward to the continued growth of this event in upcoming editions and welcome opportunities to promote the economic and cultural value of this important crop.”
He said ADFCA is organizing the event for the past fifth consecutive years as a component to various efforts it designs to strengthen Abu Dhabi’s strategic vision to build a food sector that is characterized with food security, safety and sustainability.
He attributed the success of the event to the support given by the Abu Dhabi government as well as the patronage by His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority.
“I whole-heartedly register my gratitude over the successful organizing of the events, towards the wise leadership of Abu Dhabi for strategically supporting it and HH Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed for his patronage which served as the driving force in the gradual evolvement of the event to its uniqueness in celebrating dates and palm internationally’ he said.
“Given the spectacular increase in sales volumes and revenues, we now expect broader participation and success in future editions, over72% of companies that participated in the current edition have confirmed their participation in EDIPF 2015.” He continued.
He observed that the decision to run the exhibition along with SIAL Middle East really played instrumental in the grand success of the event with food business players and individual buyers had the opportunity to visit both exhibitions at the same venue.
The event hosted a series of entertainment activities, educational and fun initiatives including a date palm museum that offered informative insights into the history of palm trees and dates, in addition to highlighting the different benefits of dates.
