AS PART OF THE NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY PLAN: For the first time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security presents its plan to promote organic agriculture in Israel

 The organic market is experiencing a global growth trend.  Across the world, there are 1 billion dunams that are cultivated using organic methods, where the world’s organic market is developing predominantly in Europe and the U.S.  Additionally, there are other countries in which the organic market is growing, such as China.  The scope of the organic sales has increased from €15 billion in 2000 to €136.4 billion in 2023. Due to the health and environmental benefits of organic agriculture, which are reflected by the global trend of investment in this field and the increase in its consumption, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Safety is working to increase the local organic production and it is announcing a wide scale strategic plan for its advancement.  This is how the organic agriculture will look in the year 2035.  

The strategic plan for the advancement of organic agriculture, which was created in collaboration with the Israeli Organic Agriculture Organization, Tuv HaSadeh, is part of the State of Israel’s national plan for food security.  As part of the evaluation of the plan that was conducted, in eight out of ten countries that were reviewed that had a food security plan, there was also an auxiliary plan to promote organic agriculture.

The strategic plan to promote organic agriculture presents an ambitious objective of expanding Israel’s organic agricultural land from 1.15% at the moment to 10% in the year 2035.  Consequently, one of the main goals is to convert agricultural farms from conventional to organic cultivation, and strengthening and expanding the existing farms.  The plan proposes to support farmers during the conversion of their farm, to encourage them to enter this branch.  In the period of transitioning from conventional to organic agriculture, the produce will still be sold as conventional; however, the cultivation costs will be higher than usual due to the change in the agricultural interface and the resulting decrease in crops.  Therefore, many farmers who hesitate to convert their farms to organic agriculture due to this transitional period will receive a safety net during the transition.

Also in order to encourage agricultural farms to enter organic agriculture, a proposal was made to improve the necessary bureaucratic conditions in favor of joining as an organic producer, including:  updating existing regulations, and addressing the lack of specific regulations for branches that are not included in the existing organic regulations, such as wine, honey and water agriculture, and processes that make it difficult to obtain authorization for new products and preparations.

Additionally, in order to assist farmers in implementing the agricultural practices and improving the work efficiency on the farm over time, the plan proposes the encouragement of research in this field, to strengthen the organic knowledge base in the government’s training system and to establish a farm for demonstration purposes and model farms that will be engaged in organic agriculture research and development.

Beyond the economic and professional aspects, in order to increase the demand and familiarity of the Israeli public regarding organic agriculture, it is recommended to launch a media campaign regarding the benefits of organic products, based on the target groups, population segmentation, and to suit the messages to the older and younger populations. Moreover, the plan suggests the significant application of organic food consumption in public institutions, such as IDF army basses, preschools and hospitals, as is done in many countries around the world. 

Concurrently, based on the plan, supervision of the cultivation of organic produce and its labelling must be increased, in order to protect the industry’s unique nature, strengthen the consumers’ trust in the supervised organic produce and prevent unfair competition with producers who market produce as organic without a permit.

As of 2024, there are 686 parties involved in organic agriculture in the State of Israel, including:  277 growers, 87 distributers, 79 plants, 61 packing houses, 60 exporters, 105 importers and 17 input suppliers.  The total land on which organic agriculture is cultivated in Israel is approximately 44 thousand dunams, of which 35% are designated for field crops, 42% for fruit crops, 3% for vegetable crops, 2% for herb crops and 18% for other crops. 

In terms of the world’s import of organic produce, most of it is designated for EU countries and the U.S., which primarily import from Latin American countries.  In light of the benefits of organic agriculture, the EU has allocated some €16 billion from 2023 until 2027 to support the conversion to and maintenance of organic agriculture.  About 11% of the EU’s agriculture fields are used for organic cultivation, as part of the meeting of the EU’s target of 25% organic fields by 2030.  In Israel, as of 2024, some 44,000 dunams have been designated for organic agriculture, which are 1.15% of the agricultural land.  0.42% of the sales of fruit and vegetables in Israel are organic produce, and 6% of agricultural produce export is organic.

Organic agriculture is an agricultural approach that strives to reduce dependence  on input outside the farms, alongside increasing the use of internal resources for maintaining the farm.  In other words, organic farms are farms that rely on economic processes and the farmer’s knowledge in order to grow his crops.  The organic method helps maintain food security, because not using chemical substances helps improve the soil and keeps it fertile for a longer period of time.  Studies indicate many environmental and health benefits, including:  reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the absorption of carbon in the agricultural land, preventing soil erosion of the land and increasing its fertility, protecting biological diversity, reducing dependence upon imported input and reduction of the exposure to pesticides.

In Israel, agricultural produce is labelled and supervised according to the Law for the Regulation of Organic Produce of 2005.  Cultivation of the organic products is accompanied by inspection and control mechanisms throughout the cultivation and production stages.  In the markets, the organic products carry the inspection symbol of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Safety.  Products that do not carry the symbol are not considered to be organic according to the law.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security’s new Department for the Promotion of Israeli Agriculture is responsible for promoting this plan and its management.  This new department promotes the policies of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security to strengthen local agriculture, including by strengthening the strategic benefits of local agriculture and connecting it to national food security, agricultural education and encouraging sustainable agriculture in Israel.