The bell pepper season in Israel looks promising but is off to a slow start. Demand in European markets for Israeli bell peppers is also increasing following the heavy rain and recent damage in Spain. Avi Bar, CEO of the Israel-based exporter Mor International notes, "The Israeli pepper season started last week. Crops are looking fine and yield looks to be promising."
The summer and autumn weather in Israel was a challenge for bell pepper growers last season and in previous years. This season the weather was much better, says Bar. "The weather is quite good and for sure better than previous seasons for this time of the year, although we see a somewhat lazy start in production, the volumes are there and will start increasing in the coming weeks."
This good weather helped them to have better-quality peppers. "The majority of production is Red block peppers, accompanied by Yellow and Orange on smaller scale, and with correlation to market requirements.
Lessons from climate impact, of heavy rain and floods in Europe
He says there are many lessons to be learned from the changing climate across Europe, with heavy and damaging rains the past few months causing damage in many growing regions. One of the biggest lessons is to not rely on one market or supplier. "We see an ongoing increase on demand from European retailers, and the situation in South of Spain in the last days, together with different supply issues in previous seasons, demonstrate the pressure from the market not to rely on Spain as almost the only source for winter time."
Bar notes that the prices in Europe started higher than in the previous season, "but as Spain is still the leading source, and with what happened there in the last days, we see some tendency of price decreasing, which may be an effect of the quality due to the weather impact. It looks like prices will be better this season, as also other origins, even though smaller in volumes, are seeing some agriculture issues which has direct impact on quality."
He says they are ready to meet the demand in their main market of Europe. "Mor International has very nice programs with retailers for this season. Growers are fully certified and ready for the season, as the labour situation is resolved too, for sure in comparison to the same time last season, after the early October events. We are committed to our customers and programs, and we'll do our best to supply the volumes, despite the lazy start, and we are sure that within a week or so, our production will get to its targets. Mor International is the biggest exporter of peppers out of Israel, representing about 75% of the exported volume," concludes Bar.
For more information:
Avi Bar
Mor International
Tel: +97 2 505491999
[email protected]
www.morint.co.il