Some 710kg of honey and 55kg of bee wax were sold over at the three-day Honey Festival at the winter vegetable market in Al Mazrouah Yard in Umm Salal.
Local beekeepers were able to raise a total of QR230,000, with QR215,000 fetched from honey sales and QR15,000 from beeswax.

“We saw a huge demand for honey products at the festival and one of the local farm that participated in the event was able to sell their entire products on first day of the festival itself," said Yousuf Al Khulaifi, Director, Agricultural Affairs Department at the ministry. Different varieties of honey products like Sidr and flower nectars were showcased at the festival and people bought pzroducts accoding to their tastes, said Al Khulaifi.

“The festival is planned to run over nine days in three sessions at different winter vegetable markets and is aimed to promote the local production of honey," said Abdurrahman Al Sulaiti, General Supervisor of farmer’s markets at the ministry.
“The first part of the festival was held last week from January 5 to 7 at Al Mazrouha Yard, Umm Salal. This week from January 12 to 14, the festival will run at Al Khor-Dakhira yard. Then it will conclude at Al Wakra farmer’s market the following week from January 19 to 21. Sixteen local bee farms and four companies are participating to the honey festival this year," he added.
“The honey festival witnessed remarkable increase in the participating farms and local companies this year and it is also pulling more customers," said Al Khulaifi.
“The purpose of festivals feature different individual products as honey, Kanar, mulberry and lemon among others at farmers’ markets, is to promote the local products and attract customers to these markets,” said Al Khulaifi.

The local honey production reached four tonnes in one season, which is considered pretty good compared to the size of quantities imported from abroad.
"The national project for honey production in Qatar aims at supporting honey bee farming to boost the production.
The project began in 2012 with 30 bee-farms. Now we have 130 local bee-farms. Many of them have doubled their production with the support of the ministry," said Al Khulaifi.
The government provides ten hives with all the other necessary accessories to the farmers. They are also provided training on latest techniques of bee-farming. The farms were provided by the ministry special packages to market their products so as to attract the customers. (Source)

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