The event is participated by 40 honey exhibitors from within and outside the country. The UAE Food Bank and Dubai Central Laboratory of Dubai Municipality are participating for the first time in the event with their stalls … reports Asian Lite News.
Dawoud Al Hajiri, Director General of Dubai Municipality on Thursday opened the 3rd Hatta Honey Festival in the presence of Her Excellency Mariam Bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Al Muhairi, UAE Minister of State for Food Security. The Hatta Honey Festival is considered the most important festival of its kind in the UAE.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Abdullah Mohammed Al Basti, Secretary General of Dubai Executive Council, Abdul Basit Al Janahi, CEO of Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development, Sheikh Salem Bin Sultan Bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Chairman of the Department of Civil Aviation, Ras Al Khaimah, Yousuf Lootah, Executive Director, Development and Investment in the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and a group of managers and officials of organizational units.
The event is participated by 40 honey exhibitors from within and outside the country. The UAE Food Bank and Dubai Central Laboratory of Dubai Municipality are participating for the first time in the event with their stalls.
Al Muhairi said: “Within the framework of the national strategy for food security and with a focus on promoting sustainable local production with new technology, we aim to improve the adoption of modern agriculture systems and methods, which will contribute to enhancing the food security of the country and raise its rank among the countries within the global competitiveness indicators to become one of the best countries in the world by 2021.”
“Dubai Municipality’s organizing of the Hatta Honey Festival today is a typical step in supporting the promotion and marketing of high quality local products as the event contributes to the sharing of ideas, innovations and knowledge of the best products to enhance their quality and provide the best honey products,” she said.
Al Muhairi stressed the importance of the Hatta Honey Festival and said: “The Hatta Honey Festival is an ideal platform that attracts many bee keepers from inside and outside the UAE.”
Al Hajiri said the festival is part of providing various kinds of support to the local industries for which the region is famous for. “The event brings together a large group of beekeepers from the UAE, the Arabian Gulf and the world to exchange experiences and discuss the most successful ways to improve honey production, which is an ancient industry in the Hatta region. In addition to that different varieties of honey produced by the region are exhibited in the event,” he said.
Al Hajiri noted that the third year of the festival witnessed great acceptance of local producers. He explained that the festival aims primarily to support the production of honey at the national level, as it is a platform for the stakeholders in this field to gather and an opportunity to exchange experiences and discuss the situation of the honey industry and its various aspects to collect the data that will contribute to further development, as well as to make the most benefit from the training courses and specialized workshops held during the festival.
The various activities of the festival offer the public the opportunity to know the types of honey and the ways of distinguishing between them. The products offered include different types of honey, such as Al Sadr, Al Shouka, Al Talh, Al Samer, Al Salam, Al Dhahi, Al Qatad, Al Saifi, Al Sahah, Al Barsim, Al Rabeei and Al Hamdhiyat, which can be distinguished by their degree of color and smell. Some types of honey are rare, as they are extracted from trees that grow in limited areas and bloom once a year.
The Hatta Honey Festival is complemented by Dubai Municipality’s efforts to enhance its services in Hatta and to develop its facilities and recreational and tourism sites, as this region is of historical and heritage importance and contributes to enhancing its position as a tourist destination and a strong attraction by benefiting from the natural elements of the region in addition to the Municipality’s contribution to supporting local industries and providing suitable marketing opportunities.
It also aims at expanding the economic benefit of the Hatta people and to enhance their participation in the overall development of their region, and to help them to unleash their full potential and employ them in an effective way to promote the development of the region. This year the festival will include receiving honey samples from the public for testing to ensure their quality.
On the sidelines of the festival, the Director General of Dubai Municipality and Minister of State for Food Security visited Hatta Honey Garden to encourage and support youth projects aimed at sustaining food security. The farm has exploited the natural resources which lead to the preservation of the environment, aimed at the sustainability of food security. The farm is an educational park for amateurs and beekeepers, a recreation center to welcome visitors to see bees, which will undoubtedly contribute to ecotourism of the region. It also includes the first specialized station in the UAE and the Gulf countries to produce queen bees of pure breeds commercially.
The Hatta Honey Festival is being held at the Hatta Hall for five days from 27 to 31 December, from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm.
