Doha: There has been a significant increase in the volume of sales of local produce through ‘Qatar Farms’ and ‘Premium Qatari Vegetables’ marketing programmes as the sales soared by more than 60 percent since the launch of the platforms.
The Head of the Agricultural Economics and Statistics Section at the Agricultural Department of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Mohamed Ahmed Al Khanji, who shared these figures, further said that both the programmes enable local farms to supply their produce to commercial outlets without middlemen.
“With regard to the Premium Qatari Vegetables programme, we started it in 2017 when the amount of sales was about 2,740 tonnes annually, and currently we have reached 4,874 tonnes, at a rate of 66 percent growth,” he said. As for Qatar farms, Al Khanji said, while speaking to Qatar TV yesterday, that the volume of sales was 11,000 tonnes and currently it reached 19,000 tones, about 64 percent increase.
He said that the initiatives aim at proving reasonable prices to local farmers for their investments and handwork by offering farm fresh vegetables to the customers at competitive prices. The good yield also encourages local farms to increase their products, he added.
Sharing more details about the two programmes, he stated: “The Premium Qatari Vegetables programme was launched in 2017 with the participation of 16 local farms in the Al Meera consumer complexes and later it was expanded to other commercial complexes with the current participation of about 150 farms.”
Qatar Farms programme was launched in 2018 with the participation of 4 commercial complexes and then expanded to all other commercial complexes, he said, adding that the two programmes launched by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Al Khanji also noted that there are also other programmes to serve restaurants and hotels with other marketing platforms for them.
In a bid to increase the sale of local vegetables, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment organises various festival like flower, honey, dates, dairy at the facilities of winter vegetable markets to attract customers.
