The minister was given 30 days from 24 July to respond. Farmers organisations in Israel protested against the minister's new policy to dismantle the citrus, vegetable, fruit and flower production boards and strip them of their regulatory and statutory positions, replacing them with a single agricultural production council, headed by the minister.

Members of all four boards will be represented on the council. The change in the country's agricultural infrastructure, the first in over 50 years, began on July 1 and should be in force from January 1, 2004. Its structure was approved by the minister just two days before the court decision, claimed by farmers' organisations as a "victory," albeit a temporary one.

The creation of a single agricultural production council is part of a new economic policy approved by the Israeli parliament to consolidate the functions of each of the production boards. Minister of agriculture Israel Katz explained that the efficiency measures taken, "will save farmers millions of shekels every year, while enabling the ministry to allocate more funds for R&D, to provide easy-term loans, modernise farms and promote Israel's export of fresh produce," he said.

As part of the new policy, the ministry has already reduced levies imposed on producers and abandoned some of the red-tape required to send fresh produce to the domestic market. The minister's target is to double Israel's annual fresh produce exports, including citrus and flowers, in five years. Exports are currently worth $800 million. The new EU-Israel bilateral agricultural trade agreement signed in Brussels at the beginning of July affords Israel further concessions and will be a valuable boost in meeting the minister's target.

Directors of the statutory production boards included farmers' representatives as well as government and public representatives. They have always worked closely with government and played a major role in shaping the country's agricultural policy and development.

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