The etrog is the yellow citrus fruit used by Jews during the week-long holiday of Sukkot. Moroccan etrog cultivators have exported 600,000 etrogs this year, which is a 10% increase compared to a typical season given the growth of Moroccan trade with Israel.
The yellow citron, cultivated in Morocco by Muslim and Jewish farmers, is used alongside palm, myrtle, and willow branches to make Lulav. Lulav is a special bouquet that people shake to send a blessing out to all of creation during the seven-day Sukkot fall harvest festival.
For a while, Israel has been welcoming these Moroccan exports, despite having its own robust etrog industry as well as strict anti-import policies. Moroccan etrog exportation was made easier this year by the recent re-establishment of relations between Morocco and Israel and Royal Air Maroc’s launch of direct flights connecting Casablanca and Tel Aviv.
“Before the agreement, we always had to sell through a third country,” Levy explained. “It could be Turkey, it could be Spain, it could be Italy, it had to transit somewhere.”
Source: moroccoworldnews.com
