HALABJA, Kurdistan Region - Halabja held its eighth Annual Pomegranate Festival over October 27-29 where tons of domestic products were displayed, gathering over 100,000 visitors to the event.
Mohammed Salih is an elderly Kurdish pomegranate farmer who took one ton of different types of the fruit to the festival.
"In fact, there is a large quantity of pomegranates. But there have been no marketing plans for exporting in order for [farmers] to benefit from it," Salih told Rudaw's Peshawa Bakhtyar on Thursday.
Farmers previously expressed their desire to increase the export of Halabja’s pomegranates. They were seen in European markets last year, but the volume of exports was limited.
"Last year a limited amount was exported, but [farmers] did not see much profit," the elderly farmer complained.
The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) ministry of agriculture has on multiple occasions said they are willing to support farmers who want to export their pomegranates.
Around 30 different types of pomegranates from Halabja province were displayed during the three-day festival.
The event also saw local products made by Halabja women – something festival organizers were keen to encourage.
Of 500 participants who took part in the event, 120 of them were women who sold textiles, folklore products, and food.
Keen to try the best pomegranates, people from across the Kurdistan Region flocked to the event.
"This is the first time that I have taken part in this festival," Arkan Mohammed, a tourist from Duhok said. "What pushed me to come over here was the popularity of the Halabja pomegranate because they are very famous inside and outside Kurdistan. So I came to test it and see the product."
Halabja produced 12,500 tons of pomegranates planted on nearly 9,000 dunams of land this year, according to Star Kamal, head of Halabja’s Agriculture Directorate, which is down from last year’s 25,000 tons, linked to water shortage, lack of rainfall and last year's cold weather.
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