Tag Archives: business
Liwa Dates Festival kicks off today
Liwa Dates Festival kicks off today Silvia Radan (silvia@khaleejtimes.com) / 18 July 2013 The ninth Liwa Dates Festival kicks off today in Mazeirah, the main town of Liwa oasis. In the morning, judges will be visiting the first competitors’ farms and inspecting their palm trees, while in the evening, from 8pm, the doors of the air conditioned tent will open to the public with the winners of the first round announced on Friday. This will be the format of this year’s festival, which, for the first time, falls during Ramadan. After Iftar and until 1am, visitors will get to sample the competing ratab (fresh, half-ripen dates), enjoy traditional shows, kids’ competitions, have a look at the exhibition featuring organisations representing dates and farming in general, and enjoy a bit of shopping in the Emirati souk. The dates competition itself, as well as the mango and lemon one will give away prizes totalling Dh5 million to the top 15 winners in each category, which include seven different varieties of dates. Since the festival falls during the holy month of Ramadan, a special atmosphere is expected, which will largely be created by the traditional souk. The 160 shops, which will financially benefit 306 Emirati families, will give an insight into the lives and traditions of this land’s ancestors. “The traditional market is a special event that reveals before the curious eyes of interested tourists our local heritage, which is rich in handicrafts related to the palm tree and dates. The visitors will find in the souk a model of the flourishing oasis decorated with palm leaves that are meticulously woven. They will have a chance to discover all products related to the lives of simple Bedouin families, such as Al Sadu — a traditional form of weaving — and knitting,” explained Obaid Khalfan Al Mazrouei, director of the festival. Al Surood (a round mat made of palm leaves), Al Mukhrafa and Al Jahfeer (two baskets made of palm leaves), floor mats, Al Meshab (a table-mat made of palm leaves), Al Yrab (a large bag made of palm leaves and used to conserve dry dates), along with pastries made of dates and all varieties of ratab will be up for sale. “The market includes a number of majlis — traditional meeting places — that will be shared by women artisans to display their products. This will give visitors the opportunity to discover the splendour of the traditional products made by a group of Emirati mothers,” said Al Mazrouei. The majlis area is also an opportunity for younger girls to learn the art of handicraft making from their elders. The festival will continue until July 25. Buses from Abu Dhabi and Al Ain to the festival grounds are available. Continue reading
Hypermarket chain slashes food prices
Hypermarket chain slashes food prices Silvia Radan / 15 July 2013 Dozens of products are to have their prices slashed by Lulu Hypermarket during the holy month of Ramadan. Every week, new dry and fresh goods are chosen for a significant price cut, including fruit and vegetables, sweets and cooking oil “At the moment we have 34 items on Ramadan sale, with more and different ones to come next week,” said Nanda Kumar, head of corporate communications at LuLu Hypermarket. Lulu announced its Ramadan promotions during an official visit from Dr Hashem Al Nuaimi, Director of the Customer Protection Department in the Ministry of Economy, which took place on Sunday at Abu Dhabi’s Lulu Al Wahda Mall. Dr Al Nuaimi toured the food section of the hypermarket, seeing to it that the prices are not hiked, and also launching LuLu’s Ramadan baskets. “I want to tell consumers that Lulu does a lot of hard work and makes all products available during Ramadan without increasing prices,” said Dr Al Nuaimi. He also revealed that the hypermarket is contributing free food to the Ministry of Economy’s families in need. “We have about 10,000 poor families across the UAE, mostly comprising five to seven members. Lulu is helping us to feed them by providing 700 vouchers,” explained Dr Al Nuaimi. In store, the Ramadan sale included items such as Crown Dates, the price of which was reduced from Dh20 to Dh16.90. Apart from these particular Ramadan price cuts, the hypermarket is also running a price lock promotion for certain food products. “We have 80 items under price lock, which means their prices will not change for one year,” said Ashraf Ali, executive director of Lulu Group. These include a pack of eight cans of tomato paste, each weighing 198gms, sold for Dh8.95. “We are also launching, for the sixth year, our Ramadan kits,” he added. The “kits” are two boxes of various dry foods. The Dh130 one contains 20 items, including cooking oil, rice, sugar, pasta, dates, tomato paste, and lentils, while the smaller, Dh90 kit contains 12 items such as salt, dates, ketchup and UHT milk. On July 28, Lulu hypermarket will also launch its Dates Festival, which will include over 100 different types of dates from the UAE and elsewhere. silvia@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Dreamliner fire serious; no sign of battery issue
Dreamliner fire serious; no sign of battery issue (Reuters) / 14 July 2013 Investigators classified the fire that broke out on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner parked at London’s Heathrow airport as a “serious incident” but have found no evidence it was caused by the plane’s batteries, Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said on Saturday. The question of whether the fire was connected to the batteries is crucial because the entire global fleet of Dreamliners, Boeing’s groundbreaking new flagship jet, was grounded for three months this year due to battery-related problems. The AAIB designation fell just short of a full-blown “accident” on the scale it uses to describe investigations. The agency’s preliminary probe is expected to take several days, opening up Boeing to more questions about its top-selling plane. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the blaze, airlines around the world continued to operate the Dreamliner. Some 18 787s took to the skies Saturday afternoon, about the same as Friday. The fire broke out on the Ethiopian Airlines plane on Friday afternoon, and was discovered when smoke was seen on the plane eight hours after arriving from Addis Ababa. No one was injured. “There has been extensive heat damage in the upper portion of the rear fuselage, a complex part of the aircraft, and the initial investigation is likely to take several days,” the AAIB said in a statement. “However, it is clear that this heat damage is remote from the area in which the aircraft main and APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) batteries are located, and, at this stage, there is no evidence of a direct causal relationship.” The Financial Times on Saturday reported that airline staff had discovered a problem with the aircraft’s air conditioning system during a routine inspection and had seen sparks but no flames. The Times, quoting Mark Mangooni, Ethiopian Airlines’ senior manager in Britain, did not make clear when this had happened. Reuters could not reach Mangooni for comment. Separately, Britain’s Thomson Airways said one of its Dreamliners that turned back during a flight from Manchester to Sanford in Florida on Friday had suffered a “minor technical issue” and had now had a small number of components replaced. Thomson said the aircraft had been fully tested and was being taken back into service at once. The airline declined to specify which components had been replaced. Thomson Airways, owned by the world’s largest tour operator TUI Travel, has a total of three Dreamliners and all are now operating normally, the airline said. Britain’s Sky News television channel said it had learnt that some 100 Thomson passengers had called the airline’s cancellation line asking to know if they were booked to fly on a Dreamliner. Sky News did not give a source for the information and Thomson declined to comment. The Heathrow and Manchester incidents were a new blow for Boeing after the entire global fleet of Dreamliners had to be grounded for three months, ending in April, after one high-tech battery caught fire and another overheated. Boeing shares closed down 4.7 percent at $101.87 on Friday, knocking $3.8 billion off the company’s market capitalisation. “Smoke throughout fuselage” Several airlines said they were continuing to operate their Dreamliners, including United Continental, the Polish airline LOT, Japan Airlines and ANA, the world’s biggest operator of the 787. Heathrow briefly closed both its runways to deal with Friday’s fire, causing delays and cancellations, but was back to normal operations on Saturday. Footage from the scene of the fire showed apparent scorching on the fuselage near the tail. The Dreamliner’s two batteries are in compartments located low down near the front and middle of the plane. The Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner has been moved to a hangar at Heathrow where it is under technical investigation, the AAIB said, adding that the initial witness and physical evidence showed there had been smoke throughout the fuselage. The AAIB said the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), representing the state of design and manufacture, and the Civil Aviation Authority of Ethiopia, representing the state of registry and operator, had been invited to appoint accredited representatives to participate in the investigation. The AAIB also said it had also invited the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, Ethiopian Airlines, the European Aviation Safety Agency and Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority to participate as advisers to the investigation. Boeing will be keen to reassure airlines, travellers and investors over the cause of the fire as quickly as possible but under aviation rules it will be up to investigators to decide how much information to release and when. Ethiopian Airlines, one of Africa’s top five carriers, said it would continue to fly its Dreamliner fleet. It has ordered a total of 10 Dreamliners, of which four have been delivered. “After a normal flight from Addis to London, passengers disembarked in the morning and the aircraft was cleaned. It was towed to a remote parking area as usual and parked properly with all internal and external powers switched off,” said an official from the airline’s public relations department. Continue reading
