President opens agricultural market

SANA’A, Sept 28 (Saba) – President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Tuesday opened a central market in Dahban near Sana’a intended to be a hub for marketing agricultural products. The YR-800-million project would be a center to sell vegetables, fruits and foodstuffs as well as exporting agricultural products to outside the country.Then, President Saleh attended the First Grape Festival in the market where he delivered a speech in which he pointed out to the importance of this central market in supporting agricultural products.He called farmers to focus on quality of their products, saying that the Yemeni agricultural products are “excellent and desirable. “He urged the ministry of agriculture and agricultural cooperative union to launch media awareness for farmers through paying field visits to guide farmers on how to improve quality of their products. He pointed out to the topic of smuggling fertilizers, calling the ministry, the union, costume authority and ministry of finance to monitor importing these fertilizers.He thanked the ministry of agriculture and the union for their efforts in organizing the festival, saying the government would encourage setting up such markets. AH/KM SABA