Major Etrog shortage expected this season
“I am just coming from the fields now; there is nothing to cut at all,” Rabbi Moshe Lazar told Chabad.org. “We’re not going to see any fruit for at least another month,”
A similar crisis was narrowly averted in 2011, when Egypt announced that they would refuse to export 'Lulav's' or palm tree fronds that are one of the Four Species used in the Sukkot holiday to Israel, a decision that was connected to the deterioration in ties between the two countries.
There was concern that the Egyptian decision, announced just four weeks before Sukkot, would create a shortage and drive up prices, because most lulavs bought in Israel in recent years were grown in the Sinai area.
Israel responded by granting an importing license for Lulav's from Spain, Gaza and Jordan, and the Agriculture Ministry encouraged local growers to improve their harvests.
Source: israelnationalnews.com
