The Plant Council recently contacted date growers in Israel
to request they make concerted efforts to supply all
lulavim for Succos to avoid reliance on Egyptian
lulavim which can be contaminated with disease.
In recent years certain dealers have seized control of the
import market and formed a cartel. Meanwhile Israeli date
growers refused to sell lulavim for various reasons,
including the claim cutting the branches damages the date
palms.
Despite these obstacles David Marom of the Plant Council sent
a letter to the country's date growers requesting they make a
special effort to supply the lulavim. Marom also
contacted Agricultural Ministry officials to request Israel
try to persuade Egypt to increase the number of
lulavim brought from el-Arish, an area relatively free
of disease.
According to estimates, approximately one million
lulavim are sold in Israel before Sukkos. To meet this
demand hundreds of thousands of lulavim are imported
from el-Arish every year. In recent years Egyptian officials
created various import obstacles, saying that supplying the
branches harms the date industry in Northern Sinai.
Date growers and the Plant Protection Services at the
Agricultural Ministry are concerned the lack of
lulavim will create heavy pressure to supply
lulavim from places infested with arboreal diseases
that could harm the date industry in Israel. The most common
disease is biyod, which has been known to cause heavy damage
to the date industry and the destruction of entire orchards
in North Africa, but authorities are also concerned over the
prospects of other diseases not found in Israel.
Plant Council officials say there have been a number of
incidents in other areas of agriculture in which the import
of a limited number of plants bearing diseases led to an
outbreak of the diseases in fields and orchards, eventually
causing tens of millions of shekels worth of damage to
growers. Once a certain pest or plant disease arrives in
Israel there may be no way to eradicate it, even if enormous
resources are invested, and the situation can deteriorate to
the point of the total destruction of the industry chas
vesholom.
