Israel's Disengagement Administration, planning the pull out of Israeli settlements from the Gaza Region, is negotiating to sell to the World Bank the modern agricultural infrastructures set up by Israeli farmers.

These include modern greenhouses, irrigation systems, packhouses and other post-harvest treatment facilities built over the past three decades.

In turn, as explained by the head of the Disengagement Administration, Yonatan Bassi, “The World Bank will transfer intact and in ready-to-operate conditions the entire infrastructure to Palestinian farmers from the Gaza Region, who will cultivate fresh produce for export to Europe.”

Agrexco, Israel's primary exporter of fresh produce, has announced it iss willing to handle all the logistics involved in exporting and marketing the produce grown by the Palestinian farmers.

For the past several years, Agrexco has successfully managed to export and distribute strawberries grown by Palestinian farmers, marketed throughout Europe under the Coral brand name, and the export of thousands of tonnes of cut flowers, grown in Palestinian owned and operated greenhouses in the Gaza Region.

Mr Bassi, former director general of the Ministry of Agriculture and in the past four years chairman of the Mehadrin-Tnuport Group, explained that as part of the Disengagement Plan, “Israel will build hundreds of hectares of new, state-of-the-art greenhouses in the northern and western Negev Regions that will replace the facilities now operating in the settlements.

“This will compensate Israeli settlers and will enable them to continue cultivating a wide range of fresh produce slated for export.”

Heads of Israel’s leading farmers’ organisations stated that they will assist “in any way possible” to enable a smooth transition of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Region, noting that “as farmers, we are aware of the sorrow and pain involved in uprooting even one tree, let alone whole villages, but we realise that there is no better way to accomplish the Disengagement Plan, a vital step to establish peace in the region.”

Agricultural infrastructures in the Gaza area, and in the Arava, are two of Israel's major regions for cultivating high-quality fresh produce for the local market and for export.

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