NISSAN completed its participation in the 10th annual Buraidah Dates Festival held in the Qassim province. The one-month festival, which is not only the biggest of its kind in KSA but the entire world, was opened by Prince Faisal Bin Mishaal, Governor of Qassim concluded last Sept. 5, with Nissan joining in its capacity as sponsor and participant. "As the official car sponsor for the Buraidah Dates Festival," said Abdul Ilah Wazni, General Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager, Nissan KSA, "Nissan plays an important strategic role in celebrating the cultural diversity of Saudi Arabia. From sponsoring and supporting Ha'il International Rally, to this vibrant festival, we underscore our commitment as a company to support and assist local communities and societies across the whole kingdom." Nissan's historical links with Saudi Arabia go back decades and the Nissan pick-up has been an exceedingly popular model. Now in its third generation, the Navara is better and more practical than ever – something that festival attendees got to experience firsthand, as ‘Nissan Stands For You' initiative was put into play. For this, Nissan used new Navara pick-ups to provide support to dealers and buyers alike, pressing them into service for the transportation of dates from the fields into the festival marketplace. Nissan also offered support by using Navaras to ship dates bought, on behalf of the buyers, to their various shops and stores (if bought in bulk) or to their homes if the quantities were smaller – a perfect demonstration of this impressive vehicle's space, durability and practicality. "Nissan has a deep understanding to the needs of the Saudi market," said Abdulilah Wazni, "and we tailor different models to this unique territory, which goes some way to explaining the brand's huge popularity here. For the Buraidah Dates Festival, the Navara proved to be a brilliant performer supporting at more than 1,000 trades took place, where individuals and traders made use of it throughout the festival." Apart from the Navara experiences, Nissan also provided test drives of other models throughout the current range and had many of its line-up on display. The company also provided a VIP shuttle service and conducted its ‘Society Contest' – a competition to find the festival's best cook and best handicraft, which helps to highlight the skills and traditions of people from this extremely special and culturally significant region. The Buraidah Dates Festival is vast in its scale, with the marketplace site itself covering an area of 300,000 square meters – more than enough space to accommodate the large numbers of trucks and traders that visit around the clock. In fact more than 1,000 trucks arrive each day, transporting more than 160 tons of dates (the cumulative value of which during the event is approximately SR2.5 billion) for traders and buyers throughout the kingdom and beyond. The importance of the festival to the province cannot be overestimated and it provides gainful employment for 3,000 Saudi men and women. Quite apart from their religious and national symbolism, dates are an essential part of Saudi Arabia's food security policy and the kingdom is home to the largest number of date palms in the world, with more than 23 million trees responsible for a fifth of global date production. Qassim province itself has around seven million date palms, making it the ideal location for this significant annual festival.
