Ofer Peleg, who recently took up the position of chief executive, speaks exclusively to Fruitnet as the seed specialist enters its 100th year
Ofer, you recently stepped up to become CEO of Hazera. What do you bring to the position, and what are your objectives?
Ofer Peleg: I am an engineer by profession, and I worked for 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry where I gained a lot of global experience.
I then moved to Netafim, the precision irrigation leader, and that was a great bridge to the agricultural business. That’s where I got to know the farmers, the beauty of agriculture and being part of the world’s green chain.
In day-to-day activities I’m using a lot of my pharmaceutical experience, because developing trade or varieties has a lot of similarities to developing new medicines. Look at the level of investment in R&D, the complexity and length of the process, and the trials you must undertake.
I’m very honoured to be part of almost 100 years of heritage. Being passed the torch and holding onto it for the next couple of years makes me feel lucky.
More specifically, I mean to navigate and to lead the company into the challenges we face, whether that is the global economy or sustainability challenges, or day-to-day challenges that every company with a lot of people and processes faces.
Moving into 2025, Hazera is celebrating 100 years of operation. How are you marking this?
OP: There are no plans to have a huge celebration, not because it’s not important, but because we are thinking about the present and looking to the future.
Our heritage is there, and it is important, but we are very realistic, and we focus mainly on where we are, how we can contribute, and how we can grow in the future.
Where are Hazera’s strengths as a seed company?
OP: We believe we have good assets. Our pipeline, our genetics, is advanced and healthy, and we have invested a lot in R&D in the last couple of years. Now we are bearing the fruits of that investment.
The second asset is our innovation, which is part of our DNA. We have just created a major function to deal with innovation, taking us through the process from the early stages of R&D all along the supply chain – production, commercial, marketing – all across the company.
People are our third major asset, and you can connect that to geopolitical challenges.
A significant number of our employees are based in Israel, which has been at war for more than 14 months. Despite this challenging environment, we see enthusiasm, progress and commitment, and the level of resilience is strong.
I can say the same for Ukraine, because we have operations there and those guys have been at war for three years, and they still deliver in a really impressive way.
For the full interview with Ofer, see Eurofruit Magazine January 2025 – Fruit Logistica part 1
