"The way things are now is partly ridiculous and partly disgraceful. The Israeli government is providing a safety net for Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's agricultural sector, instead of for Israel's own farmers, who suffer from freezing cold and intense heat, war, and missile barrages," Israel Farmers Union president Dov Amitai said today, referring to the decision by the Ministers of Finance and Agriculture to import tomatoes, following a shortage in the markets.
Amitai today announced that next Monday, his organization would lead a "day of rage" among farmers all over Israel, to include a mass demonstration in front of the Knesset building in Jerusalem. At the demonstration, the farmers, some of whom want to travel to Jerusalem on tractors, will call for stopping tomato imports; repeal of the taxes that farmers pay for employing foreign workers; eliminating the monopoly in marketing agricultural produce, overconcentration, and the large shares taken by middlemen; cutting water prices for farmers; and higher subsidies and government support for agriculture.
"All of our attempts at establishing a team to examine the state of agriculture in Israel have been defeated by the bizarre unilateral decision to import tomatoes from Turkey at prices that the regulatory differences between the two countries keep us from competing with," Amitai declared.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 6, 2015
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