Preparations are currently taking place for the Jewish New Year holiday of Rosh HaShana, which this year takes place on September 20. During this holiday, consumption of many fruit and vegetable products is much higher than the average rate for the rest of the year, and as a result supermarkets and importers are forced to organise in advance to ensure sufficient supply.
The Jewish tradition during this holiday calls for the consumption of something sweet as a symbol for a sweet new year, and the most common custom is to eat an apple dipped in honey. Apple demand during the holiday week routinely increases by over 10%; Israelis consume some 730 tons of apples in a regular week, but over 835 tons were consumed.
This trend has been growing in recent years and is expected to continue this year as well. Though Israel has major production of apples, primarily in the northern part of the country, some 26,000 tons of imports from Europe and the USA are still required annually to meet the growing local demand.
Overall consumption of food items goes up across the board during the holiday period, according to Gal Zahav of Shupersal, a large supermarket chain which imports its own produce occasionally, “Besides for apples which are by far the biggest item, there is a general trend of more consumption in supermarkets as people are preparing to host the holiday dinners in their homes. Pomegranate is one of the fruits which is still in season during the holiday and is in high demand due to its sweet taste”.
Though the export season for early Israeli pomegranate is slowing down already at this time of the year, the production is still suitable for local consumption and many growers plan to save their crop for this period. On average Israelis consume about 3 pomegranates per year, and 2 of those usually come during the holiday period; sales in this period increase by up to 800%.
Overall pomegranate production last year stood around 66,000 tons, of which 18,000 were exported while the remainder was consumed locally, mostly in the holiday period. This year growers have been experiencing even larger crop as new varieties and new plantings from recent years are beginning to bear fruit.