Michael Ofran’s tiger tomatoes

Michael Ofran’s tiger tomatoes

Amid various potentially limiting factors, Israeli growers continue to exceed expectations and exports are rising by a staggering proportion year on year. With more than 75 per cent of the country’s horticultural export volume, Agrexco has been enjoying the increased attention from the European market.

Being a considerable distance from the end market presents Middle Eastern exporters with a huge disadvantage when it comes to ensuring the prolonged quality of their produce. However, detachment can sometimes have its advantages, which has been especially apparent this year owing to the Mediterranean weather crisis.

According to Agrexco’s citrus product manager, Golda Ezuz, the season has so far been excellent for most varieties of Israeli citrus and the company is expecting to see an increase in its sendings of around 20 per cent overall. “A shortage in Europe of grapefruit, oranges and easy peelers is allowing very good returns for the growers,” she says. “Demand is very good and there are hardly any stocks left.”

Agrexco introduced some new easy peeler varieties this season. The company shipped satsumas to Europe for the first time last year and is planning to send additional volumes for the start of the season this year. In addition it has been steadily increasing volumes of other easy peelers, such as the increasingly popular Or variety.

Avocados have also experienced a boom with total yields for the season estimated at 85,000 tonnes, compared to 50,000t last year, according to Agrexco’s avocado project manager Gaby Naamani.

Owing to the poor quality of some of the produce last season, brought about by some unfavourable winter weather, a lot of the growers were considering condemning large quantities of the fruit, Naamani explains. However, the decision was made last summer to increase plantings by 75 per cent and this season has proven excellent so far, in terms of quality and prices, he says.

According to Naamani, it is only in the last few years that Israel as a whole has regained its confidence in the profitability of agriculture, particularly regarding speciality products such as avocados. “The last five to eight years have been very good for the industry,” he says. “We have seen a very fast movement and people now realise it is a good business.”

Consumer demand is increasing but is still in need of a little encouragement, however. France continues to be the strongest market for Israeli avocados, absorbing around 8,000t of Agrexco’s exports. Yet, while the UK only receives 4,000 to 5,000t at the moment, Naamani believes this is slowly changing, with consumption having almost doubled to around 36,000t in the last six to seven years. “We can see a tendency that France’s share is decreasing every year,” he says. “It was close to 60 per cent of our market 10-15 years ago, now it is closer to 40 per cent and England is leading in interest.”

Naamani hopes the continued investment in generic promotion by the Chilean and South African marketing boards set for this autumn, will help develop the UK market even further. “One of the advantages in the UK is they are starting to sell the fruit as ‘triggered’ so the consumer knows that in two or three days it will be ripe,” he says. “The next step is to have two different stages of ripeness. Every retailer has different specifications but they are afraid to give really ripe fruit because of the issues with shelf life and possible damage in transportation.” Almost all of Agrexco’s produce is sent in a very firm condition, although Naamani is in the process of conducting a trial with sending half-ripe avocadoes.

The division has announced plans to increase plantations by 1,000 hectares within the next five years, a decision that carries considerable risks, Naamani claims.

Given the vagaries of consumer demand, with a product like avocados it is difficult to justify large investments in new varieties or increased plantations since plants need to be ordered in advance and it is two to three years before the trees achieve viable fruition. According to Jewish law, all fruit dropped in the first two years must be discarded, which, while being advantageous for the long-term health of the trees, can be hard for the growers, he says.

The majority of Agrexco’s avocados are produced in the Hadera region, which boasts of a plentiful water supply. Meanwhile some 65 per cent of the country’s horticulture is produced in the isolated Arava desert region in the south, which suffers from extreme shortages in water year-round. This has not deterred growers from continually re-investing in the land, and engineering innovative varieties and techniques, however.

Water is often pumped across vast distances or national boundaries. Paran, the first moschav (collective village of independent growers) to invest in protective glass for pepper production, pumps water from neighbouring Jordan, although the countries’ relationship has become strained owing to Israel’s political situation with Palestine.

In some instances, it is possible to be too pioneering, as Michael Ofran, a tomato grower based at Zofar in the south, has found. After years of experiments to produce high lycopene varieties, Ofran has developed the tiger tomato that has a very attractive striped skin and deep red colour.

However, despite the market’s interest in the health benefits of lycopene, it is difficult to market its intrinsic selling point, as there is no way of communicating its lycopene content, he explains.

While the tiger tomato has generated considerable interest, Ofran is not yet producing marketable volumes. Yet he is sending samples to Waitrose and hopes they will be commercially available within the next couple of years.

Israel’s horticulture sector has experienced considerable changes over the last couple of decades, both in terms of land cultivation and labour. The number of Israelis employed in the sector has dropped dramatically from 69,000 in 1995 to 18,000 in 2005. However, the production of major crops has increased in this time. As a result there are fewer growers with larger areas and workforces in their charge.

While the majority of land is still being cultivated, urbanisation has made a noticeable impact in certain regions. Families in the moschavim are given approximately 500 square metres of additional land, alongside their farms in order to build extra housing for the second generation, irrespective of whether or not they are involved in agriculture. The incentive for the government is to work towards doubling the population by allowing for alternative uses of the land, and not restricting it to horticulture or agriculture.

In addition, some land owners rent out their greenhouses and land for commercial use and several Kibbutzim (co-operative villages) have also built shopping mall complexes next to major roads, where the red and yellow arches of McDonalds are often the first images welcoming motorists to the co-operative sites. However, as a result of such development increased funds are available for research and development and varietal and technical experimentation.

With a decreasing number of Israelis choosing to work in horticulture, growers have been forced to look as far afield as Thailand for labour. Thai workers have been employed for the past 16 years and now number 26,000, according to Agrexco’s statistics. After the initial migration, numbers increased dramatically, but have stabilised in the last six to seven years.

The process began as a result of Israeli companies such as Agrexco wanting to give assistance to Thailand as a sign of modern agricultural practice, while the salary incentive has encouraged many to keep family members working in Israel.

The majority of their pay is in US dollars and approximately 10 times higher than the Thai equivalent, which is transferred by Israeli organisations under Thai control to banks in Thailand for their remaining families.

The Israeli authorities are obliged to monitor the duration of contracts granted to Thai workers. They arrive with a two-year permit, which can be renewed although they must return after six years.

In the past growers had forged good relationships with Palestinian employees. However, ever-increasing security problems led to an unavoidably inconsistent supply of workers, which opened the way for Thai migrants.

While Arabs from occupied territories are employed in citrus, most Thai workers are involved with vegetables, salads and flower production. Meanwhile, the Israeli workforce consists largely of long-established families with owners employing few unrelated native workers.

Oren Mazor, is a second-generation farmer who has had to learn Thai to be able to communicate with his workforce. Given the increasingly complex specifications demanded from international markets, this has proven fundamental, he says. Until 20 years ago Mazor’s land was used for citrus production but owing to the perpetual water shortages, his father switched to flowers, growing Gerbera, wax flowers and carnations. He later became the head of the Israeli board of flowers.

Then, eight years ago, inspired by his father’s open-mindedness and the fickle nature of the market, he says, Mazor made the decision to become the first Israeli grower to specialise in ornamental green leaves. He has developed 150 dunams (15ha) of Aralia (Fatsia Japonica) and 25 dunams (2.5ha) of Pittosporum. Agrexco now works with 200 growers and decorative foliage and leaves has become an increasingly lucrative area for the company.

According to the product manager, Beeri Lavi, Agrexco exported a total of 205 million green stems last year, of which its subsidary, Carmel UK, imported 28 million stems. Around 70 per cent was absorbed by packers supplying the multiples, with the rest going to the wholesale market and other importers.

The four main products for the UK market are Ruscus, which accounts for a fifth or 12 million stems of the total, Pittosporum, Asparagus (Ming Fern and Tree Fern) and Aspidistra Elatior.

Mazor has significantly increased his production of Aralia in the last few years, a product that has already developed a strong market in Europe, if not as yet in the UK. Having produced 1.5 million stems in 2001, his volume topped 32 million last year. Owing to the bad weather experienced by his rival growers in Italy, Mazor was able to make a pleasing in-road into the European market and justify a dramatic rise in plantation levels.

In addition, by hand-picking all leaves, his company can offer a supremely precise level of grading, he explains. While, Italian growers bunch four or five different sizes together, Mazor offers eight different stem sizes from 20-80cm.

According to Mazor, accreditation schemes are becoming increasingly important for foliage growers exporting to the European market, although the category as a whole is still lagging behind fresh produce, he claims. “The UK is starting to discuss EurepGAP certification for flowers and educating growers,” he says. “But most of the flowers they use come from third world countries so it is harder for them. Germany and Holland are the biggest market for flowers but they are not demanding the required standards of social living yet, however we are prepared with our Bio Bee standard.” Bio Bee is part of the company’s ECOFRESH accreditation standard which was introduced prior to the official launch of EurepGAP.

Since flowers are customarily sold in mixed bunches, they lose their identity at the end market, but with the increasing demand for traceability, each step of the supply chain will ultimately have to prove their compliance with eco-friendly practices, Mazor says. For the first time this year, his company will be promoting the Bio Bee standard by displaying stickers branded with the logo on all foliage packing boxes.

Decorative foliage is becoming increasingly desirable as flower arrangements become increasingly tropical in appearance and florists are able to command much higher prices than their initial outlay costs. A further point in their favour is their shelf life, Mazor explains. “If they are stored as they should be and left in the right conditions, Aralia can survive 30 days in shipping to New York and still have an extra 21-30 days shelf-life.”

Determined to stay ahead of the swiftly-changing market Mazor is continually experimenting with new varieties. He has just started commercial trials of a silver fern called Polipodium. With the attractive foliage already proving a success in the local market, Mazor is hoping it will not be long before the rest of the world follows suit.