Opening of the Seventh International Festival of Jordanian Dates in Amman
Amman, December 16 / WAM / The Seventh International Jordanian Dates Festival, organized by the Khalifa International Award for Date Palms and Agricultural Innovation of the Zayed Humanitarian Legacy Foundation – Presidential Office, was launched today in Amman, in cooperation with the Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture and the Jordanian Dates Association, under the patronage of Jordanian King Abdullah II.
His Excellency Dr. Saeb Al-Khurisat, representative of the festival’s sponsor, the Jordanian Minister of Agriculture, stressed in the opening speech that the festival embodies the depth of fraternal relations between the United Arab Emirates and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
His Excellency thanked the Presidential Office for its continued support for the festival, which was implemented based on the cooperation protocol signed in the capital, Abu Dhabi, last April, between the Ministry of Agriculture of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the General Secretariat of the Khalifa International Nakheel Award. Dates and agricultural innovation, and the Jordanian Dates Association, in cooperation with regional and international organizations.
The opening of the festival was attended by His Excellency Hamad Abdullah Al Matroushi, Chargé d’Affaires of the UAE Embassy to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Dr. Abdul Wahab Al Bukhari, Secretary General of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, a number of representatives of international organizations, members of the diplomatic corps residing in Jordan, and a large crowd of researchers, farm owners, date producers, and Jordanian companies.
Al-Khurisat said that palm cultivation in Jordan is achieving qualitative leaps in terms of spread and production, as more than 20% of the agricultural areas in the Jordan Valley are planted with palm trees, while the volume of the Kingdom’s exports of dates has reached more than 60 million dollars, which makes this sector a pioneering sector that attracts investment, supports the creation of job opportunities, and raises the value of agricultural exports.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation stressed that the success achieved by the International Jordanian Dates Festival over 7 years demonstrates the depth of historical bilateral relations between the two countries, and embodies the common will to support the agricultural sector and develop palm cultivation and date production in the Arab world.
He added that the festival reaffirms the international standing enjoyed by the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation and its constructive role in developing the palm cultivation and date production sector at the national, regional and international levels, after it achieved tangible success by organizing a series of festivals in a large number of countries around the world.
Engineer Anwar Haddad, President of the Jordanian Dates Association, thanked the UAE, represented by the Khalifa International Award for Date Palm and Agricultural Innovation, for its efforts in organizing the festival at this high level for the seventh year in a row in cooperation with the Jordanian Dates Association.
He stressed that the festival constituted, over the past years, a pioneering national platform that contributed to creating a qualitative shift in the palm cultivation and date production sector in the Kingdom, as the sector witnessed a remarkable expansion in the cultivated areas in the Kingdom exceeding 45,000 dunums, in addition to an increase in production to reach more than 35,000 tons of high-quality dates, which are exported to more than 55 countries around the world.
A documentary film was shown about the achievements of the award “2007 – 2025” and the relationship of the award’s objectives to the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, and how it contributed to enhancing food security and achieving sustainable development, at the national, regional and international levels. The winners of the Jordanian Dates Competition in its seventh session, 2025, were also honored and influential figures in the date palm sector in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan were honored.
The festival is accompanied by an exhibition for date producers and manufacturers from Jordan and the participating producing countries, and a scientific symposium with the participation of 20 experts and academic researchers specialized in palm cultivation and date production. The festival also witnessed the signing ceremony of three cooperation agreements between the Jordanian Dates Association and a number of relevant authorities in the field of palm cultivation and date production.
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