Importers and retail chains have revised their preferences and increased the share of tomato purchases from Jordan instead of Turkey after buyers announced a boycott of Turkish goods due to the anti-Israeli rhetoric of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. However, the volume of tomato imports from Turkey still exceeds that of Jordan: last week 700 tons of tomatoes from Turkey and 500 tons from Jordan arrived in Israel.
The volume of tomato imports into Israel accounts for approximately 30% of local consumption. In general, in October, approximately 50% of the tomatoes sold in Israel are imported, but this year, due to the war, the statistics are different. Traditionally, there is a shortage of tomatoes in Israel in October, since the harvest on farms around the Gaza Strip has already finished, while on farms in the Arava and in the center of the country the harvest has not yet begun.
This year, after Black Saturday and the subsequent War of Iron Swords, a significant portion of the tomato crop grown on farms around the Gaza Strip was never harvested, and the crop actually rotted in the fields. At the same time, approximately 50% of local tomatoes are grown in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip.
Last week, consumer prices for tomatoes increased by a total of 1 shekel per kilogram.