Israel: Dramatic increase in organic banned substances
It turns out from this inspection that 2014 has seen a dramatic increase in the quantities of banned substances in organic produce. According to the results, the previous year has seen 8.8% of samples contain excessive amounts of pesticides, compared with 3.8% in 2013.
Of the samples taken at the point of sale, 4 products (5%) were found to be noncompliant: green onion, red grapefruit, apple mash, and carob powder,
Out of the samples taken from packing houses, factories, and growers, 3 products (3%) were found to contain pesticide residues: organic mint, dry onion, and celery plants.
The results of the inspection indicate that there’s been an increase in the number of organic growers and producers in 2014, rising from 593 businesses in 2013 to 642 in 2014, an increase of 7.63%. The most new businesses were importers of organic products into Israel, 38 in 2014 compared with 24 in 2013. The import market continues to expand due to ample supply of organic products and demand for new products alongside familiar ones. The number of organic growers in Israel also increased, by 4.4%, going from 326 in 2013 to 341 in 2014.
Looking at the products that increased the most, in vegetable products there has been an increase, of over 50%, in land used for growing squash, garlic, and strawberry. In fruit products, the largest increases were in peach, litchi, morgina, nectarine, raspberries, passion fruit, and kiwi. In field crops the largest increases were in corn, paprika and cotton.
Vegetables that saw a decrease in production were watermelon, artichoke, beets, cherry tomatoes, Japanese pumpkin, and acorn squash. Fruits which decreased were jojoba, pitaya, jujube, and sapodilla. Other products which saw lower production were carrots, wheat, chickpea, sunflowers, oatmeal, clover, and potato.
Taking all organic agriculture into account, organic vegetable production remained almost unchanged - 3,771 hectares in 2013 compared to 3,778 hectares in 2014; organic fruit production saw a decrease of 9.28% - 16,428 hectares of fruit in 2013, compared to 15,039 hectares in 2014; organic citrus production increased by 16.5% - 1,875 acres of citrus in 2013, compared to 2,246 hectares in 2014; the data shows an overall drop of 26.5% in organic crops - 32,105 hectares of field crops in 2013, compared to 23,597 hectares in 2014.
During the previous year, points of sale of organic produce were also inspected. The inspection examined documentation and traceability, separate storage, product labelling, lab testing and more. The results were highly disappointing; 93% of the points of sale were found to have labelling that was not compatible with the products, and 43.7% were found to have improper documentation which made it impossible to track the produce back to the source (supplier/grower).
Organic agriculture background:
Organic agriculture makes up roughly 1.5% of the overall agriculture production in Israel and roughly 13% of overall agricultural exports out of Israel. This sector includes over 600 firms, including some 330 growers. About 62,500 hectares are used for organic agriculture: field crops – 26.5%, vegetables – 33.5%, fruits, 31%, herbs – 1%, other – 8%. In addition to the production for the local market, Israel exports organic produce primarily to the European Union countries, totalling 85,504 tonnes of vegetables, 2,192 tonnes of fruits, and 2,230 tonnes of citrus in 2013.
Source: foodis.co.il
