Halabja pockets over 900 million IQD from its pomegranate festival

Participated by 500 farmers, the agricultural event ended on Saturday.
A Kurdish woman displays a cracked pomegranate at Halabja's autumn festival, Oct. 14, 2021. (Photo: Dana Hama Gharib/Kurdistan24)
A Kurdish woman displays a cracked pomegranate at Halabja's autumn festival, Oct. 14, 2021. (Photo: Dana Hama Gharib/Kurdistan24)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The total income from Halabja’s 8th Pomegranate and Fall Festival has reached over 900 million IQD within three days, according to organizers.

Two-hundred fifty thousand tourists across the Kurdistan Region have visited the city to participate in the annual festival recently, Arsalan Abid, the head of Halabja Network of Organizations, an organizer of the event, said in a press conference on Saturday.

Participated by 500 farmers, the agricultural event ended on Saturday.

Abid also indicated that this year’s total income from Halabja’s pomegranate and autumn festival reached up to 950 million Iraqi dinars (over $650,000).

Pomegranate production witnessed a decline this year, however, the fruit's quality has remained high, several farmers have said recently, blaming extreme winter and summer conditions. 

Halabja’s pomegranates have been exported to a number of European countries and the UK.

As part of its efforts to provide markets for local Kurdish produce, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is planning to export the fruit to other countries in a near future, officials have announced recently.