The Golan Heights dairy informed the dairy council and the Golan dairy farmers today (Thursday) that it is forced to immediately stop the production of dairy products at the dairy due to financial difficulties it encountered.
The immediate meaning is that the dairy will not make additional purchases of milk from the dairy farmers in the Golan Heights and the surrounding area whose milk is intended for this dairy.
The Golan Heights Dairy is in the process of reaching an agreement with the bank, if one is not found - it will be closed immediately.
Following the announcement, the Dairy Council, as the person responsible according to the law for regulating the dairy industry, appealed to all dairies in Israel with a request to absorb the milk quotas of the Golan Heights dairy immediately.
At the same time, the Director General of the Milk Council, Itzik Schneider, appealed to the Tnuva management to make every effort to increase the production of supervised drinking milk immediately in order to meet consumer demand and so that there is no shortage.
Tnuva factory in Rehovot.
Increase production, photo: Yossi Zeliger
Shufersel, photo: Yossi Zeliger
The Golan Heights Dairy is the fifth largest dairy in Israel and produces dairy products, including supervised products as drinking milk under Shufersel's private label, Gad Dairies, as well as products bearing the name of the dairy.
Shufersal's private brand may suffer a severe blow when some of the products, which mainly include supervised milk, and Bulgarian and Safed cheese, have been supplied by the Golan Dairy until today.
"Unfortunately, the difficult reality faced by dairy farmers and dairies received a tangible expression this evening when a food manufacturer that employs hundreds of workers and suppliers in the periphery, had to stop its activities," said Schneider.
"The Dairy Council works in coordination with the management of the Golan Heights dairy and in cooperation with all the dairies in Israel, in order to provide an immediate response to dairy farmers who found themselves without a livelihood and without the ability to export their produce and at the same time, making sure that the regular supply of milk and its products to consumers - will not be affected," he added.
Lior Simcha, CEO of the Milk Producers' Association, said: "We will stand by the dairy farmers of the Golan Heights at this difficult time and help them find a dairy that will receive the milk, in order to continue to maintain Zionist agriculture at a level that carries with it national, economic and social value.
The situation in which the Golan Heights dairy found itself is painful for all of us, recognizing the importance of the dairy as a productive force and a source of employment in the periphery."
Farms (archive), photo: Ancho Ghosh/Gini
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