Last update - 00:00 22/01/2008
Frost causes NIS 500 million in damages
By Amiram Cohen
The amount of damage from last week's cold snap is growing by the day as more and more farmers are discovering how bad the frost really was.
The Agriculture Ministry now estimates the damage to farmers at NIS 500 million.
The worst-hit crop was potatoes; estimates of 70,000 dunams (17,500 acres) of fields were damaged. For the moment, there is no spud shortage and prices are not expected to rise much, as growers are now gathering all the potatoes they can from the fields and selling them immediately. However, three months from now a real potato shortage and price increases are likely.
As for other vegetables, price increases and shortages are already being felt. Eggplant and zucchini have both doubled in price, reaching NIS 10 per kilo. Almost the entire crop in the Negev and the Shfela regions were destroyed by frost.
Strawberries also jumped in price, passing the NIS 20 per kilo mark.
Lettuce, eggplant and zucchini crops in open fields saw 50-70% destroyed; and 40% of hothouse tomatoes were lost.
Avocodo trees were also damaged, in addition to the loss of almost the entire export crop. Mango and loquat trees were also harmed, as were passion fruit and lemon trees.
Bananas in the Jordan Valley and Western Galilee were heavily damaged.
The Agriculture Ministry noted that price increases for produce sold to the ultra-Orthodox community would be less than average, since during this year's Sabbatical year (Shmittah), the ultra-Orthodox bought mostly imported produce, in particular from Jordan, and this was less affected by the cold spell.
Also seriously affected were peppers, almost all of which were intended for export. Hothouse peppers from the Arava were almost completely wiped out, 70% of the crop was lost. Tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables in Central and Northern Negev hothouses were also damaged, since hothouses in these areas are not designed to protect crops from the sort of low temperatures we saw last week.
The worst damage hit produce intended for export; they will be disqualified for export and sent instead to local markets. 25% of a flowers for export were lost.
This is the main reason the prices of certain vegetables have not increased much, although farmers have suffered huge economic losses on these crops. In fact, certain produce such as peppers and tomatoes may actually see prices go down slightly as markets are flooded with vegetables that are no longer exportable.
Vegetable growers are insured for 50% of their production costs, according to the basic policy. About half of these farmers are insured with a broader policy that is supposed to return up to 90% of their costs.
Orchard owners also have the same basic insurance, but in their case, when a major event occurs they automatically get the 90% coverage. The state pays for 80% of the cost of these policies.
Very few flower growers have the basic insurance and these farmers will probably bear very heavy losses due to the frost.
The Agriculture Ministry said it will present figures agreed upon with the farmers as to the amount of damages at the end of this week; as well as the value of insurance coverage for the various sectors.