The Ankawa District Directorate on August 2-3 organized the third edition of the Pera Festival for agricultural and food products at a local farm.

Ankawa District Mayor Ramy Noori Syawish told Kurdistan Chronicle that this year the festival is directly supported by the office of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani. 

“Our target, as in the past two years, is to help these people sell their products. If they were to sell in bazaars or markets, it might take a couple of months,” Noori said.

“We are assisting them with effective marketing and selling their products in a very short time. All the products are from Ankawa, Shaqlawa, and the Nineveh plains.”

The goal of the festival is to sell local products. “This is one of our main goals and aligns with the goals of the KRG Ninth Cabinet.”

The festival also included locally produced wines from Shaqlawa and Ankawa.

Lisa, from the local wine business Khunaw Sarok, told Kurdistan Chronicle that it is a very good festival to promote local products.

“It’s our local family business that my mother started. For a while, we stopped doing it, but now that she is retired we have opened the business again. We mainly make natural red wine.”

“We don’t water the grapes; they are cultivated using special farming methods without pesticides or chemicals.”

Will Holden, one of the visitors, who is originally from Ireland, told Kurdistan Chronicle that he liked the festival. “When I got the invitation I wasn’t sure what to expect to be honest and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw so many people here. I couldn’t believe it.”

Holden said he also tried and bought some local wines from Shaqlawa. “I visited Shaqlawa a long time ago, so it was nice to try something good from there, and there are nice grapes hanging around, as well as good displays. So I am looking forward to the rest of the event.

The Pera Festival will continue on Saturday, August 3, from 7 to 9 pm.