HALABJA, Kurdistan Region of Iraq –  The 11th iteration of Halabja’s annual Pomegranate and Autumn Festival garnered over 1.2 million dollars in revenue for farmers and craftspeople selling their merchandise at the event, Halabja Governor Nukhsha Nasih said on Saturday.

The province welcomed just under 420,000 visitors during the three-day festival, Nasih told a press conference, adding that some 35 percent of the tourists also paid visits to the city’s myriad attraction sites and resorts.

Celebrated annually at Halabja Amusement Park, the Pomegranate and Autumn Festival is a celebration of the Kurdistan Region’s and, more particularly, Halabja’s culture, where local farmers and business owners put their products, consisting of agricultural produce, food items, and handcrafted goods, on display for thousands of visitors who attend the festival.

Agricultural products raised some 700 million dinars, according to Nasih, while around 800 million dinars worth of food items were sold during the festival. Handcrafted goods, meanwhile, raked in another 200 million dinars, bringing the festival’s revenue to 1.7 billion dinars (slightly over $1.2 million), not accounting for revenues brought to the city by related tourist expenditure outside of the event such as accomodation and restaurants.

Photo: Nazm Manya / The New Region

Mohammed Dilshad, a local business owner, boiled natural Kurdish chewing gum in front of the public at the festival. Dilshad said that his brand had turned gum extracted from the terebinth tree into wax to be used as natural candles. He highlighted the role of the annual event in helping local businesses like his own, describing it as “a very good opportunity for business and factory owners to expand their markets.”

Diyar Mohammed, another entrepreneur who owns a factory producing natural products like olive oil for wholesale distribution, said that the festival allows them to have direct contact with their customers, once again describing the festival as a great opportunity to introduce his brand. “We [are] proud of these kind[s] of festivals,” said Mohammed.

This year, around 600 businesses and farmers showcased the fruit of their labors in stalls to visitors, Soran Naqishbandy, an organizer of the festival, told The New Region.

Halabja's annual pomegranate festival is underway, seeing over 600 stalls showcasing the province's finest produce pic.twitter.com/J41zyWOTn2

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Naqishbandy noted that the Kurdistan Regional Government was the main funder of the festival this time around, allowing them to better organize the event.

The organizer further said that the Halabja province’s local administration had officially voiced support for UNESCO's 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), with seven of the SDGs having already been implemented in practice at the festival.

“This year, we officially became supporters, and we hope not only to be supporters in the next year but also to get a spot on the SDG's global map and register the pomegranate festival internationally,” Naqishbandy added.