The southern region of Israel that is at the epicenter of the war with the Palestinian group Hamas also serves as the country’s breadbasket. To unblock a crucial supply chain disrupted by the hostilities, Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have created a “safe logistics corridor” to distribute foodstuffs that cannot move through their normal channels.
The ministry’s director-general, Oren Lavi, is conducting several daily “situation assessments” to review scenarios of damage to the supply of food from plants and animals to the public and to “ensure functional continuity and food security for the public,” the agency said in a statement that was published in Israel earlier this week and subsequently sent to FreightWaves.
“Most of the issues raised do not concern the lack of agricultural produce in the fields or farms, but rather the logistics along the food supply chain in general, and in particular from the southern region to the general public,” the ministry said, noting that many workers along the ag supply chain have been recruited into the military or have not shown up for work.
In order to minimize the difficulty of providing a full response to demand, the ministry said it is “prepared to assist in the field, but mainly in transportation to industry and at the point of sale through several steps.”
“As recently as last weekend, even before the war began, the farmers harvested and collected dozens of kilograms of vegetables intended for sale, but in view of the situation, these remained in the south,” the agency said. The ministry and IDF worked out a plan to move agricultural produce “in a safe logistics corridor” to the marketing chains and points of sale throughout the country, according to the communique.
In addition, the ministry has appealed to local authorities to recruit high school students to help with produce picking. The agency is trying to relocate foreign workers unable to leave the southern region to pick cucumbers in Ahitov, a central Israeli town known as the country’s “cucumber barn.”
“The goal was both to take care of the foreign workers and get them out of fire areas, and to bring in additional workers to fill the shortage following the blockade that prevents the arrival of Palestinian workers, and help supply the agricultural produce and meet the demand,” the agency said.
In order to safely increase the distribution of local produce, the ministry’s plant protection and inspection services are working to maintain the health of plants while preventing the penetration of plant pests and invasive species into Israeli territory.
State inspectors are “working under fire” at the border crossings to release the imported goods as quickly as possible, according to the communique. Since the beginning of the week, approximately 3,500 tons of fruits and vegetables have been handled and released from the ports. These will arrive in stores in the coming days, the agency said.
About 93% of milk production and supply are operating regularly, the ministry said. “However, in light of the lack of workers throughout the supply, transportation and logistics chain, there is difficulty in producing the products and transporting them to the points of sale.”
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter has ordered the ministry to prepare for the controlled import of milk during wartime, according to the communique. The ministry has recommended an immediate wartime special quota for the duty-free import of up to 10 million liters of milk per month, equivalent to approximately one-third of the country’s milk consumption.
There is no shortage of eggs because most laying hens are concentrated in the country’s northern region, where hostilities have been very light to nonexistent. “However, as with milk, in light of the lack of workers throughout the supply chain, transportation and logistics, there is difficulty in transporting the products to the points of sale, the ministry opens a duty-free framework quota for the import of 50 million eggs,” the communique read.
To ensure that farm animals have adequate basic provisions, the ministry has recommended that water reservoirs be completely filled and that swimming pools be converted to emergency water reservoirs.