Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

The lady with date fruits idea to delight the children

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Every year, she arrives at the Oman Dates Festival with her collection. When parents see the things she puts on display at her stall, they approach her with eager curiousity.


She has got quite a collection. Inside a little crochet bag, are a few dates. At a corner, she has a miniature teapot with dates on the side and beside this are miniature Bedouin tents and little toys with dates.


There was a theme to what she has.


“All of these are put on display to attract young children to consume dates,” said Adeela Ahmed Sultan.


There are many entrepreneurs at the dates festival but what is extraordinary about Adeela Sultan is the customers she targets — she has her focus on the younger buyers.


Dates have all the nutritional values a child would need in addition to the goodness of fibre. But due to the proliferation of chocolates and candies, they are usually the last choice for kids to pick. And that competition is tough.


Even then, dates has been established to be a good source of various vitamins, minerals and sugar. Aside from these, it is also known to provide calcium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium and zinc all that are ideal for growing children.


Adeela has gone a step further from leaving the dates in a bowl for the family to pick from. She has fancy packaging to catch the young mind’s imagination. And if all this is not enough she has cakes made out of dates.


“This is my sixth participation with the festival. Usually, we are in Nizwa,” she shared.


She added, “The idea behind what we have is that with the toys, hidden are dates that children can eat. We just thought that there is a need to push the children to have dates.”


“Our products have expanded over the years. Now we have dates partnered with pencil sharpeners and erasers. Something they can use. We have samboosas stuffed with dates — which proved to be our best seller as now, we are totally out of stock. We also have cakes and the most popular one is date syrup,” Adeela explained while busy watching over her Gift Garden stall.


It’s not just the children they hope to have as customers though. They have something for the adults too which comes in syrup form that can be used on bread, Luqueimat (dumplings) and other sweets.


“For health purposes, some of our syrups have ingredients such as ginger and pepper which are good for cough. All are natural and healthy,” she said.


Adeela also shared that the dates she uses and some of the materials, she sources locally from farmers who own date farms.


Over the course of the last six years, she has won several times prices from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, the organisers of the Omani Dates Festival.


Despite being about 10 am, many of the young children visiting the festival are rushing towards her stall excited by the different items on her stall.


“They are excited because they are students and these are affordable items suitable for their pocket money,” said Adeela while busy watching the excitement on the children’s faces.


Adeela’s Gift Garden is a home business but every year when it is time for the date festival, she gets into her thinking mode to come up with newer ideas for children.


“The last five years, we were in Nizwa and every morning we would receive schoolchildren. This is the first time in Muscat but the schools have not been coming every day. The students though, once they visit, come in rush out with the dates and sharpeners and erasers,” she shared.


Once the festival is over, Adeela goes back to being a home business receiving and interacting with clients through her social media account @Adeela_Ahmed_Sultan.


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