Israel’s avocado harvest is in full swing with good demand and high prices seen in Europe. According to Yonatan Meron, Export Manager of Granot Fresh, “Israel is in full swing with more than 5,000 tons a week harvested.”
He says the majority of the fruit being harvested, 65%, is Hass and the rest Greenskin avocados. Meron describes the European Hass market as very good with high prices that will likely remain for some time. “The Greenskin market is stable. Most of the fruit in Europe is from Israel. The Hass market is very good and expected to stay with good demand and high prices until the end of the season, since other winter suppliers are lacking fruit. The quality is good and the logistics is working. It is okay until now, while it is without too many surprises,” explains Meron.
Orri mandarin season
Meron says they started their Orri mandarin season very well, although they had some rain over the past two weeks. “We just started our Orri season three weeks ago. The colour is getting better every week and we see the boxes are looking better and better like this premium variety should. We had some rains, so there was still not a lot of volume that was loaded from Israel. The expected export volume of Orri will be much lower than last year, so we expect good demand and hope for higher prices.”
Given the ongoing war in Gaza, the restrictions that do not allow workers from the West Bank to enter Israel’s borders and the large number of people called up for military service, it leaves producers with a shortage of staff to do crucial harvesting and packing tasks. “Our biggest challenge for this season will be the harvest. We're missing a lot of man power because of the current situation in Israel,” states Meron.
Visit Granot Fresh in Berlin in Hall 5.2 D-23.
For more information:
Yonatan Meron
Granot Fresh
Tel: +972 52 680880
Email: yonatanm@granotfresh.com
www.granotfresh.com