Shari, 24 Rajab 1447 AH (13 January 2026)

The fifth Truffle Festival, held in Shari, has raised the economic value of the local desert truffle by transforming it from a raw ingredient with limited uses into a range of food products and heritage dishes, with more than 30 productive families who have mastered the art of cooking truffles diversifying the offering and lifting the local product from a limited market into a tourism attraction in its own right.

The festival delivered rewarding financial returns for the families working in this field by using truffles in innovative folk recipes and authentic heritage dishes, raising their market value and linking them to the region's cultural and culinary identity in support of the product's long-term sustainability.

Festival management said preparations began early, with intensive training for productive families and women in cooperation with the Shari Social Development Association to professionalise the use of truffles in the variety of traditional folk dishes associated with them, which showed in the quality of the products and how they were presented and marketed to visitors.

The festival preserved the core identity of the truffle while moving towards processed products, producing packaged goods in cooperation with specialised companies and factories and applying modern methods to preserve the product for long periods, alongside a range of heritage dishes that proved popular with visitors.

These efforts have created temporary and permanent jobs for young people in Shari and neighbouring centres, supported the local economy and strengthened the truffle's standing as a national product with heritage and tourism value, capable of diversifying income and meeting local development goals.