AL-AHSA: The city is gearing up for the festival of dates that begins early next month, and arrangements for the event have already been made by the authorities concerned.

City Mayor Adel Al-Mulhim said great attention was paid to this event due to the close association of date palms with the nation’s heritage and customs, in addition to large production of dates in Al-Ahsa.

Al-Ahsa Festival for Dates and Palms 2015, which will be held under the directions of Prince Badr bin Mohammed bin Jalawi, aims at highlighting and expanding the Al-Ahsa dates market, attracting more purchasing power, regulating selling mechanism, promoting the dates sector through the exchange of experience and closer ties among farmers, producers and manufacturers, he said.

The supreme committee of the festival confirmed a total ban on poor cartons/boxes that do not comply with the health and environment specifications and standards.

It has provided alternatives for sale through allocated points, including King Abdullah City for Dates, Al-Ayoon Industrial City and the central vegetable market.

The committee called on factories producing cartons to cooperate with the mayoralty in this initiative.

The market committee held training workshops for auctioneers, conducted by Muhammad Ismail, director of King Abdullah City for Dates. He said that the workshops included training for auctioneers on selling mechanism, market regulations and direct cooperation with various panels like the registration committee and the commercial fraud committee, to renew the licenses for each official auctioneer.