Just a few months after Delek Group bought control of Mehadrin, a grower and exporter of citrus and other produce, the latter reported a loss of NIS 160 million for the third quarter of 2023, mainly stemming from a reduction in the fair value of its assets. Mehadrin also warns in its report that the Gaza war is a having "a material and severe impact on the agricultural sector in Israel in general, and on the Gaza Strip border area and the north of the country in particular," and hence on the company’s business.
Currently, in fields near the Gaza border, trees are uprooted and irrigation systems wrecked, while a labor shortage threatens the citrus and avocado harvests. The huge write-down was caused by a decline in value of Mehadrin’s assets and the company’s abandonment of loss-making plantations. The company says that its management has formulated a strategy for improving the efficiency of its agricultural activity in Israel, under which it will shed loss-making areas and expand its activity in profitable areas.
Source: en.globes.co.il