"Help restore agriculture": the Israel Farmers' Association urgently appeals to the marketing chains

The Israel Farmers' Association urgently appeals to the large marketing chains: they have already begun to mark the local agricultural produce and helped restore and strengthen Israeli agriculture

The Law on Marking the Country of Origin of Agricultural Produce passed the Knesset last July and is supposed to enter into force in December 2023. As a reminder, the Knesset approved the law that will allow the consumer to identify the country of origin of agricultural produce, with the aim of creating transparency for consumers and encouraging the purchase of local produce. Now the Israel Farmers' Association is asking the marketing chains to mark the Israeli agricultural produce right now, in a voluntary way.

As you know, since the Black Sabbath of October 7, Israeli agriculture has suffered a severe shock. Many farmers, as well as their workers, have been murdered, kidnapped, injured or are simply missing. Some of the agricultural areas have been severely damaged, some of them cannot be accessed due to the fighting and all of them have a tremendous shortage of working hands. The farmers are working hard trying to get to the fields and provide the citizens of Israel with local agricultural produce and they do succeed, with the help of great volunteers, in transporting the produce to the marketing chains. Now the farmers are imploring the marketing chains to allow the consumer to choose the produce he wishes to purchase and to proudly present the Israeli agricultural produce.

"This is not only an agricultural consideration, but already a political-security consideration. As soon as there is not enough agricultural production within the borders of the country – the residents will abandon the settlements," says Yaron Belhassan, CEO of the Fruit Growers Organization in Israel. "There are farmers who have had family farms since before the establishment of the state – and this is the only profession they have worked in all their lives. Field activity Agriculture maintains the borders, and the settlements are literally like outposts along the border line. In order for there to be activity or production in the farms and plantations – the marketing chains have to mark every species and variety of every product that is an agricultural product such as fruit, vegetable or eggs – from where it was imported and what is its country of origin. Consumers must know to whom they are transferring the money – and choose to encourage locally produced agriculture.

According to him, all the farmers in Israel – in the north and in the south – face very big challenges in view of the security situation: "Israeli agriculture relies on many foreign workers who do the work in the most skilled and professional way. In view of the situation, about 4,000 Thai workers in plantations and farms – received an order from the King of Thailand to leave the country, so we have a large and serious shortage of manpower in agriculture. This is a severe blow since these workers have been part of the agricultural existence in Israel for many years. In addition, many agricultural areas are currently closed military areas, which cannot be worked in and the fruit picked from. It is also a big risk right now for farmers to work in the agricultural areas that are close to the border – right near the Hezbollah operatives who shoot indiscriminately.'

Amit Cohen, manager of the Malkia orchard of summer fruits, which is located a few meters from the Israel-Lebanon border fence, goes on to describe the complex situation on the ground: "Kibbutz Malkia is a few hundred meters from the border, and the orchards are all around the kibbutz. Some of them are right on the fence – and some are just tens of meters from it. The war caught us when most of the fruits were still on the tree and had not been picked, and when it started, a complete stop was made to the pickings. In the last few days, the possibility of picking the fruits opened up – but all the foreign workers who were engaged in picking here returned to their countries of origin because of the fighting and the risk in our proximity to the border.'

"We are in a situation where we only manage to pick about a quarter or a third of the amount of fruit we are supposed to pick," he adds. "We are trying at this stage to catch up with the recruitment of different pickers or volunteers – and the biggest challenge we will have in the future is to catch up with the gap created when the picking stopped. Right now from an economic point of view, the damage of the situation will probably be a damage of millions – and I'm only talking about our small economy right now. The concept among Israeli consumers that can benefit the situation of farmers within the borders of the country is to buy Israeli produce and not imports from abroad. When there will be an Israeli product marking on every product right now, this will definitely help us to reduce the dimensions of the damage as a result of the security situation. It's time to help us.'
The CEO of 'Avocado Gal' adds and announces that "it is not possible to continue picking the fruits on the northern border. About 50% of the avocado growing areas in the Upper Galilee are closed. Many agricultural areas located in the area of the conflict line in the north, up to 2 km from the Lebanese border, were declared by The IDF as a closed military area.'

"Farmers in the northern border settlements on the conflict line with Syria and Lebanon are in the apple, avocado, and kiwi picking season, but are not allowed to go to the plantation area. Also, there is a shortage of working hands, as some of the workers have been recruited, and the foreign agricultural workers have been evacuated from the area, in addition there is a problem with transportation , electricity supply, water, protection and more. If the fruits are not picked on time, they will rot on the trees.'
Chairman of the Israel Agricultural Association and secretary general of the Moshavim movement, Amit Yafarah suggests: "Marketing chains must take responsibility and precisely today, more than ever, identify with local agriculture and prefer Israeli agricultural produce over imported produce. We call on the marketing chains to mark the Israeli agricultural produce on the shelves so that the consumer has the option of purchasing it instead of the imported one, and on this occasion we call on the first to purchase the goods from Israeli farmers instead of the imported one."

Secretary General of the Israel Agricultural Federation Uri Dorman adds that "in order to strengthen Israeli agriculture and so that we can come out of the crisis together, we are asking the marketing chains to mark the country of origin of the agricultural produce in a law that should go into effect in about two months anyway, thus giving consumers the choice of whether they prefer an Israeli tomato or an imported tomato This is a move that will help in the rehabilitation and strengthening of Israeli agriculture and above all will show solidarity with farmers around Israel."