Rachna Korhonen, the US consul general in Dhahran, has visited Al-Ahsa Dates Festival 2019, organized by Al-Ahsa municipality in partnership with Al-Ahsa Chamber of Commerce.  She said that she attended the festival last year and noticed a remarkable development this year because the festival has been able to integrate traditions into the events. Korhonen was also shown how thousands of tons of Al-Ahsa dates are made in a variety of molds. Korhonen said that the agricultural attache at the US Embassy in Riyadh will visit Al-Ahsa next week to hold meetings with businessmen on agricultural development and the possibility of the embassy’s contribution to it. The US consul general also held a meeting with members of the Al-Ahsa Chamber of Commerce to discuss the possibility of assisting businessmen in the region in exporting Al-Ahsa products to the US. The delegation included the economic and tourism counselor, Eric William, Commercial Officer Jerry Rand, Cultural Counselor John O’Raco, and Political Adviser at the Consulate Dan Dili. Al-Ahsa is the largest date-palm oasis in the world, with about 3 million trees spread across 30,000 acres. It is particularly famous for the khalasah date — known in Saudi Arabia as khlas, a word that loosely translates as “quintessential” — which is routinely named in polls as the best date in the world. Every year, Al-Ahsa hosts a dates festival in an area covering 3,600 square meters, featuring government agencies and companies that grow and sell dates. The strategic vision of the festival is for Al-Ahsa to become a focal point for the dates industry, by transforming them from simply being an agricultural item to a distinctive product for investment, tourism and the economy. The festival aims to develop the concepts of agricultural marketing, quality production and communication between farmers and traders.