The prices of vegetables in the localmarket in Israel have continued their upward trend even after the Jewish NewYear, after experiencing major price jumps before the holiday. In the month ofSeptember, vegetable prices have gone up by over 100% in some cases, and haverisen almost across the board. This has left wholesalers and supermarkets in aproblematic situation, as they struggle to meet customer demand at reasonableprices due to severe shortages caused by low supply due to heat waves which havehurt production in the country.
As a result, criticism against theminister of agriculture, Uri Ariel, has been mounting, claiming that he hasfailed to act on ensuring lower prices. After extensive media coverage of thehigh vegetable prices ahead of the Jewish New Year, the ministry of agricultureannounced that they would allow open importation of vegetables from Europe andneighboring countries. This announcement has only brought on more criticismhowever, as market experts and executives note that there was no legitimate wayto import vegetables in such a short time.
According to Dudu Hamuel, manager andowner of a fresh produce wholesaler, “the proclamations made by minister Arielare baseless. Waking up to the situation at the final hour is not relevant andshows an absolute lack of professionalism. To import vegetables from Europe youneed two weeks. Nearby countries are more accessible but are suffering from thesame issues Israel is.”
According to wholesalers andsupermarkets, the occurrence of the heat wave conditions combined with the factthat prices routinely increase in the period leading up to the holidays made itpossible to foresee the problem ahead of time and allow open importation muchearlier. Doing so would have allowed wholesalers to prepare and prevent anyprice escalations.
In response, the agriculture ministryhas attempted to set the record straight, pointing to the Israeli economy beinga free market and weather conditions and demand to be highly unpredictablefactors which influence prices. Minister Ariel stated that “It is impossible topredict the unusually adverse weather conditions we have experienced recently,and so it wasn’t possible to foresee the price spikes. Additionally, it has notbeen the case that every year before the holidays the prices increase sodramatically like they have this year.”
The minister defended the timing of thedecision to open importation, “Without prior knowledge of how weatherconditions will impact the supply of vegetables, the ministry is stronglyopposed to flooding the market with foreign produce which could severely hurtIsraeli producers. On top of that, the Israeli economy is a free economy andhas no restrictions on imports. The decision to allow open importation with notariffs is only meant to speed up the process, while anyone who had interest inimporting vegetables was always free to do so.”
Source: globes.co.il