BURAIDAH, Saudi Arabia, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Amid rows ofpick-up trucks loaded with crates and boxes, vendors cry outprices at Saudi Arabia's Buraidah Dates Festival, a hugeseasonal market dedicated to the sweet golden-brown fruit.

Farmers, traders and consumers descend on the town, knownlocally as "the city of dates", in the central Qassim region,one of the most conservative parts of the country, for the45-day event, which organisers say is the largest of its kind inthe world.

Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, is also aleading producer of dates and the area around Buraidah is knownfor its large swathes of date palm trees.

"The city of dates sells annually about 300,000 tonnes.Every day, 1,500 cars (carrying dates) enter the city and cometo this market at the peak season," Khaled al-Nukidan, generalsupervisor of the Buraidah Dates Festival, said.

"We are talking about a large quantity of dates in thelargest market for dates in the world."

Various kinds, shapes and sizes of dates are up for sale buta particular delicacy is the reddish-yellow Sukari date, worthbetween 20 riyals ($5.33) for a 3kg carton to 250 riyals ($67)for rarer types.

"The best dates are the ones that are shiny and yellow,indicating moisture," trader Abdulatif al-Wahaibi said.

"Dates that are half and half and are not tasty are paler.Stay away from these ones." ($1 = 3.7504 riyals)

(Reporting By Nael Shyoukhi; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian;Editing by Andrew Heavens) ((Marie-Louise.Gumuchian@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 2290;Reuters Messaging:marie-louise.gumuchian.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))