DOHA: An interesting addition to the farmers’ market in Umm Salal, known as Al Mazrooa, is the locally grown plums, known in the Qatari parlance as kanar. Its botanical name is ziziphus jujuba and it is also called as Chinese, Korean or Indian date. Its Hindi name is ber. According to a salesman at one of the outlets in Al Mazrooa, the demand for kanar is so much so that he alone has sold something like 200kg in the past two days.
The farm he works for is located in Umm Qarn and has hundreds of jujuba trees which produce some 150 to 200kg of ‘kanar’ a day. kanar season is from middle of January to the middle of May, said Iqbal, the salesman.
kanar, according to nutritionists, has several key minerals and is rich in vitamin C—It contains at least 20 times more vitamin C than any citrus fruit and considered a medicine for various diseases. kanar is available at Al Mazrooa in one and five-kg packets and while a kg cost QR10, the five-kg box was available for QR25 yesterday.
However, locally grown tomatoes and cucumber became expensive y in Al Mazrooa yesterday due to what vendors said were supply concerns.
Greenhouse-grown tomatoes were sold for QR20 per box of five to six kg here. The rate the previous week was QR14. Farm-grown tomatoes were available for QR14 a box, each also of five to six kg, while their price was QR9 last week.
Tomatoes are in high demand round-the-year and in winter particularly, as they are the main ingredient for curry-based local and Asian food preparations. Al Mazroora is one of the three farmers’ markets. The other two are in Al Wakra and Al Khor/Al Dhakhira. They are open three days a week, from Thursdays through Saturdays, during the winter months.
Cucumber turned three times costlier than the previous week in Al Mazrooa, with its price jumping from QR12 for a five-kg box to as much as QR36.
Iqbal said the price hike was, perhaps, due to slackened supply of imported vegetables.
He didn’t give further details and said the prices of other vegetables were stable as compared to the previous week.
Demand for tomatoes and cucumber didn’t dwindle due to the price hike, he said. “In the past two days we have sold hundreds of boxes of the two vegetables,” Iqbal claimed. Broccoli has begun coming on the market and its rate yesterday was QR18 for a five-kg box. Both types of cauliflower were selling for almost the same price. The price of pumpkin was QR20 for a seven-kg box and egg plants were the cheapest—QR12 for a box of four to five kg.
The Peninsula
