PANAJI
The Konkan Fruit Fest will be held at the Mandovi riverside promenade along Dayanand Bandodkar Marg, opposite ESG/INOX till Lighthouse, from May 13-15 from 10 am till 8 pm. The event is facilitated by the Botanical Society of Goa and Corporation of the City of Panaji as festival partner. Directorate of Agriculture, agricultural universities, NGOs and many other government agencies will be collaborators for the event.
Konkan Fruit Fest is organised with a motive to celebrate and promote local fruits of Goa and the Konkan region. Fresh fruits and potted fruit plants will be kept for display. Nusery plants, processed fruit products, manures and other agricultural essentials will be for sale by individual vendors and private companies.
This year the Konkan Fruit Fest will begin with the receipt of the fresh fruits (four-five fruits of mango, chickoo, cashew, carambola, loveapple etc, 5-6 bulbs of jackfruit, single fruit of pineapple, papaya etc, and at least a dozen berry per entry) on Thursday, May 12 from 10 am to 3 p.m. For assistance, the Zonal Agriculture Officer can be contacted. There are no entry fees and competition is open to all.
The entries will be judged by experts that have professional background in agriculture. Three winners will be selected from each category and cash prize along with certificates will be given on May 13 in the evening. On Friday, May 13 entries will be reccieved for processed fruit products (juices, squashes, wines, jams, pickles, cakes, chutney, souffles, jellies etc) from 10 am till 3 pm.
The inaugural ceremony of the event will be held at 11 am. Competitions like fruit-vegetable carving, flower arrangement and some spot activities in the morning and, prize distribution, live music and entertainment will be held in the evening.
On Saturday, May 14, a new competition is introduced this year which is Potted Fruit Plants. It is open to all and the plant entries will be accepted by 10 am. Judging will be based on the criteria of fruit health, plant health and overall outlook. The plants will be kept for the display on the competition day and the following day. Along with this, other competitions like fruit eating competition, fancy dress competition will be also held. Three winners from each competition will be selected and prize distribution will be held in the evening.
On Sunday, May 15, drawing competition for the children and spot activity like guess the fruit weight will be held. The closing ceremony will be at 5 pm. This year, the event is led by Raj Pai Panandiker as KFF chairman and Liza Pinheiro as KFF organising secretary.
