OECD Report: Israel Maintained Agricultural Stability Despite the Challenges of the War

Jerusalem, 2 November, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, published its annual report on agricultural policies in its member countries last weekend, for 2024. The report showed that Israel maintained agricultural stability despite being at war.

As every year, this report reviews agricultural policies in the organization’s countries based on the professional recommendations and decisions of the organization’s institutions for effective and sustainable agricultural policies. This year, the authors of the report note the resilience of Israeli agriculture during a period of security crisis, through steps promoted by the ministry such as the National Food Security Plan, lowering water prices for agriculture, rehabilitating and developing agricultural areas in the envelope, and increasing the quota of foreign workers.

The report’s findings show that Israeli farmers benefit from budgetary support similar to that of OECD countries, and smaller than that of farmers in the European Union and the United Kingdom. However, the report emphasizes that 91% of the support comes from support measures that are considered trade-distorting (mainly market price support, output-dependent subsidies). This figure remains twice as high as the average in OECD countries and even increased by 2% compared to last year. This is due to the continued support for local market prices and the existence of protective tariffs on a number of meat and dairy products.

According to the report, protective tariffs and market price support are less effective. The report also emphasizes that in terms of total support for israeli agriculture, including the general services that the state provides to farmers, Israel is significantly lower than the average for OECD countries, at only 0.31% of GDP. In other words, half the average for these countries.