RIYADH, 13 March 2005 — Creativity and beauty bloomed Wednesday at the Arab Floral Design Contest held at the King Abdul Aziz Historical Center in the center of Riyadh. Now in its seventh year the contest pitted 12 expert flower arrangers against each other who were selected from a field of 118 applicants.
Taking first place this year was Lebanese expatriate Sultan Novel of Nardin Flowers. Egyptian Saeed Al-Minyawi of Shalimar Flowers placed second, and Saudi Mahir Saleh of Hadaya Flower took third place. Contestants came from the Kingdom, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and the UAE, according to Akram Sharafuddeen, the head of the contest’s organizing committee and director general of Al-Zanabiq, which cosponsored the event with the Agriculture Office of the Embassy of the Netherlands.
The names of the winners were announced Thursday night by Deputy Agriculture Minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Obeid at a special celebration at the King Abdul Aziz Historical Center. The event was attended by Dutch Ambassador Nicolaas Beets and a large audience of flower lovers and admirers.
While flower enthusiasts enjoyed seeing the magnificent styles of floral designs of the contest participants, they will have more opportunities through March 19 to see more at the Kingdom Tower.
Five of the top participants in the contest, including the three winners, will host various interactive demonstrations of their artistry at work. Since the inception of contest, the Embassy of the Netherlands has collaborated in organizing this event. The Netherlands is still the world’s leader in the field of floriculture, accounting for a quarter of its 18.3 billion euro agricultural production. It also is the major floral exporter to the Kingdom.
