Akre Food and Natural Products Festival Opens to Promote Local Produce

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — A festival showcasing food and natural products opened in Akre on Thursday, bringing together a wide range of locally produced goods as part of efforts to promote local agriculture and support farmers in the area.

The three-day festival aims to highlight Akre’s agricultural potential, provide producers with an opportunity to showcase their products, and encourage residents to purchase locally produced goods, organizers said.

Fazil Mustafa, director of agriculture in Akre and the festival’s organizer, told Kurdistan24 ahead of the festival's opening  on Thursday that this year’s event is the second edition and that all preparations had been completed.

“The festival will open to guests and residents today at 10:30 a.m.,” Mustafa said. He added that the festival venue is located near Akre’s modern market and will remain open until late Saturday night.

This year’s event is larger and more diverse than previous editions, he said, featuring a wider range of agricultural and natural products.

Akre is considered one of the Kurdistan Region’s agriculturally rich areas, with local farmers producing a variety of fruits, vegetables, honey and other natural products.

Visitors to the festival will have the opportunity to purchase locally produced goods at prices lower than those generally found in markets, according to the organizers. 

The initiative is also intended to provide farmers and local producers with a direct market for their products while promoting the agricultural identity of the area.

KRG policy on local production

The festival comes amid the Kurdistan Regional Government’s broader policy of strengthening agriculture, improving food security and increasing the role of locally produced goods in the regional economy.

The KRG’s Ninth Cabinet has identified agriculture as a strategic sector for diversifying the economy, supporting farmers, reducing reliance on imports and expanding markets for locally produced goods.

The government has also sought to promote agricultural exports when production exceeds domestic demand.

In July 2026, the KRG said agricultural investment had increased substantially during the Ninth Cabinet, alongside the expansion of greenhouses, cold-storage facilities and agricultural production. 

The government said these measures had helped increase domestic production and enabled farmers to supply markets elsewhere in Iraq and export products to Gulf and international markets.

The government has also taken measures to protect local farmers from competition from imported agricultural products. In 2023, the KRG restricted imports of certain agricultural products during local production seasons, explicitly citing the protection of farmers and support for domestic produce.

More recently, the KRG has continued to emphasize agricultural marketing. In August 2026, a nine-day agricultural market in Halabja provided farmers with spaces to sell locally produced goods directly to consumers, with the government describing such initiatives as part of a broader effort to revitalize the agricultural sector.

The Akre festival therefore serves not only as a local marketplace but also as an example of the broader push to connect farmers with consumers, strengthen domestic agricultural production and create greater market opportunities for producers across the Kurdistan Region.