The Moshavim Movement

• Published date: 17 January 2021
• Author: DUDU LEVY REICH
• Date: 17 January 2021

The information contained herein is accurate as of the day of publication, and should not be understood as an alternative to professional consulting services that take into account the specific circumstances of the individual and are tailored to meet their needs. The aforementioned should not be understood as an offer for credit, loan provision and/or deferred repayments, subject to the terms and conditions and approval of the bank. Inability to keep up with payments may incur charges on interest in arrears or repossession proceedings.

Selling Exotic Fruits through Buyers' Groups

Daniel Duvdevani

I'm a farmer whose primary produce is passion fruit, the son of a farming family from Talmei Elazar (northeast of Hadera). Four years ago I set up Jungle Yashir (Direct Jungle) together with my business partner, Johnny Dishi, one of the leading pineapple growers in Israel.

The farm specializes in premium exotic fruits such as papaya, star fruit, sugar-apple, lychee, mango, avocado, and of course passion fruit and pineapple. Our partnership enables us to share our knowledge and to sell the produce primarily within the local market – to wholesalers as well as some to supermarket retailers.

Before the coronavirus, we employed about ten employees between us, including some Thai workers. Some of them left and some remained.

Luckily for us, the sector of the food industry that we are active in was not impacted by the first lockdown as it was considered a critical sector. At the start of the period, there was a drop in sales because people were unsure about what was happening and were nervous about the future.

Slowly but surely though, it began to recover. People were sitting at home unable to go out and spend money, so they compensated for it with food. We identified the potential challenges very early on and began to consider our options. I, for example, reduced my passion fruit orchard from 25 acres down to 15, knowing that we would expand it back to its original size when the Thai workers returned.

The coronavirus period made us understand that we need to switch to direct sales of our produce. Already during the pilot stage, our impression was that people were beginning to understand more and more how simple it is to buy over the phone and receive the produce direct to their homes.

At the moment we are continuing to develop our customer base, and at the same time working on a website and an option for online sales. I want to note that this was made possible through...