A basket of dates fetches 240 Omani riyals

Muscat: At the beginning of the date harvest season, a basket of the fruit has fetched 240 Omani riyals (Dh2,292) at an auction held at Afi village in Wadi Al Maawel in north of Oman.

The vendors and traders said that the price so far was the highest in the Batinah region, which sees early season for dates.

Auctioneers predict that the price of dates will come down with the rise in supply, especially with mercury climbing resulting in dates ripening faster, According to a report in Arabic daily Al Watan.



The harvest season has just started, the Minaz date palm trees are laden with fruits, and farmers are jubilant as the harvest this year seems to be even better than what they had anticipated.

The Minaz palm tree is one of the best-known trees in Oman. It gives its scarlet sweet date early in the season.

Old camers makes $1.89 million

A CAMERA from 1923 has been sold at auction for a world record 1.32 million euros ($1.89 million).


The Leica camera's final price shattered pre-sale estimates.

The purchaser was a private collector from Asia who wants to remain anonymous, said Vienna's WestLicht gallery, which organised the auction.

The camera was one of about 25 prototypes made in 1923, two years before the celebrated German brand went into commercial production. It had been valued ahead of the auction at about one quarter of what it eventually went for.

The previous world record was set last year when a collector paid 732,000 euros for a daguerreotype, the world's first commercially produced camera, which bore the rare signature of its French inventor.