gn is currently underway in Israel and Oron Ziv, of the Israeli producer and exporter Befresh Europe, is hoping for a successful season, “despite it being also bound to be difficult, as at the moment some clients are not keen to work with Israeli suppliers and there are additionally some problems with oversupply.”Regarding pomegranates, which are also just starting, Oron affirms that the first container has only just arrived to the market and so far the situation is looking okay, although the season is still at too early a stage to make any accurate estimation.
Regarding the block of European supermarkets to Israeli products, which is gradually affecting not just produce from specific areas, but the country as a whole, Oron hopes “that both the conflict and the market situation will have quieted down by September, with the start of the citrus and avocado campaigns, as right now, for instance, the Scandinavian market is totally blocked.”
On the other side of the coin, the recent Russian ban on EU products could represent an opportunity for Israel to ship more goods directly to Russia. Oron explains that “it will depend on the product and the prices. The pepper shipments, for example, will certainly shift towards Russia, although Russian importers may not be able to pay some of the most expensive products, like the Orri. ”
Oron, in any case, believes that the difficulties have a lot to do with the market situation in general, as many clients are eager to purchase high quality products, even if they come from Israel. “The mango market, for instance, is currently flooded with cheap produce from Brazil. It is always a combination of political and market issues, and thus how it will all evolve is difficult to predict.”
Last year, some Israeli products already had a bad season, namely grapefruits, but other countries, like South Africa, were also affected by these issues. “Demand appears to be going down and Israel produces large volumes of red grapefruit. Producers will likely shift to more profitable citrus varieties, like the Orri, so we’ll see what impact this will have on prices.”
Oron points to the need to develop new varieties, but also to the fact that “this is a long process. It takes some time before new varieties become good commercial varieties; the ones we are currently testing, for example, will likely take a decade before we can claim them to have become a success like the Orri. Growers naturally not only look at the selling price, but also to costs and the average yield over the years.”
