Building on the success of the last year’s show, the organizing committee of Emirates International Date Palm Festival has decided to double the size of the show this year.

Scheduled to take place from November 21 to 26, the show will spread over an area of three exhibition halls at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre.

The festival will showcase the product offerings of 200 exhibitors from 17 countries, contributing to the cultural and commercial development of dates.

The festival will be held under the patronage of Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nayhan, Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE, Minister of Presidential Affairs and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, and is organised by Turret Media.

Mohamed Jalal Al Reyaysa, chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee for the festival, said: "We anticipate wider popular interest for this round of the festival. Our anticipation springs from the popularity the festival achieved in the last round and from the wide variety of events planned this year. This is also an occasion for exchange of views and expertise among producers, experts and specialists of date palm as well as among top officials from the date's industry."

 “This substantial increase in size is due to the huge demand and overwhelming response received by the international and regional dates manufacturers. They are confident that their participation will tap the dynamic and potentially enormous emerging dates markets; and will also make brisk business during the six days of the event,” said Qaboos Khalid, project director of the festival.

In 2010, the amount of dates sold to individuals, buyers and companies during the festival exceeded Dh18.4 million.

More than 90 per cent of the dates manufacturing companies participating last year have returned for this year’s edition. Top exhibitors include: Al Foah Company, Al Dahra Agriculture, Al Ain Diary, Onaizah Dates Factory and Al Madinah Dates.

“The hallmark hosted buyer programme maximizes the sales potential for the companies by bringing in 50 international dates buyers and arranging one-to-one meetings with them in a very structured and highly effective way,” Khalid added.

The festival will also host national pavilion from Iran for the first time, together with pavilions from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Iraq. China, Italy and the US have also confirmed participation.

Researchers, farming technology, as well as agriculture and other governmental representatives are also present in the exhibition to highlight their achievements and reach out to communities.

A wide range of activities including as date palm tree climbing, tribal singing, dancing and poetry, dates photography, cooking, dates tasting and even dates theatre are planned. Over 17000 visitors are expected to visit the exhibition.

Co-located with SIAL Middle East, the regional trade show for food industry, participants at Emirates International Date Pam Festival will benefit from the already established high quality audience.