- AL-JOUF: Farmers participating in the Al-Jouf 5th Annual Olive Investment and Marketing Festival have sold more than 70 percent of their exhibits of olives and olive oil products by the end of the ninth day of the event on Tuesday.
- They said the festival presented them with a profitable marketing opportunity.
Farmers said visitors from various parts of the Kingdom as well as neighboring countries such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates were keen to buy Al-Jouf olive oil.
Participation in the festival was not limited to farmers from the Al-Jouf cities of Sakaka and Doumat Al-Jandal but also included farmers from regions such as Qurayyat, Tabarjal and others.
The festival attracted more than 180,000 visitors and made sales of more than SR16 million, which were the largest compared to the previous four festivals.
King Abdul Aziz Women Welfare Society, under Princess Sara bint Abdullah, and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities jointly organized the festival.
Basmah Madani, chairperson of the society, said women displayed traditional and contemporary art works, industries, handicraft, public food and other items.
Fareedah Al-Shammari, a Saudi painter, got herself a small corner in which she displayed her paintings. "This is my first gallery in the Al-Jouf olive oil festival. It has attracted quite a few visitors and I was able to sell a number of paintings," she said.
Al-Shammari, a housewife and a mother, said preoccupation with family and children did not prevent her talent from showing up. She said, though she was not a member of any association of painters, she was able to display her paintings in other exhibitions.
Al-Shammari sells her watercolor paintings at SR150 and SR200 a piece.
