Hundreds of Israeli vegetable growers have joined forces with fruit growers forming a strong group opposing the imposition of levies to the Plant Production & Marketing Board. The growers are planning a joint legislative and pr campaign to abolish the charges.
Rami Kantor, manager of the vegetable section, said that growers have joined the campaign from all parts of Israel but "mainly from the central cultivation areas in Israel in the Arava, the northern Negev and the Lachish region." Benny Kutin, a fruit grower and one of the organisers of the campaign, said that that this move is not aimed at shutting down the board. “We are not ready to finance its activities out of our own pockets,” said Kutin. “As other government statutory bodies are financed by the government, the plant board is included in this category.”
Israeli fruit growers achieved a significant judicial victory when the District Court of Justice recently moved that the Ministry of Agriculture ought to stop the policy as it denied those producers who did not pay the levy the right to an allocation of foreign workers. Now that vegetable growers have also joined the battle, there are a total of 2,500 producers backing the non-payment drive.
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