Say Cheese: Israel’s dairy holiday has hopes and holes

Ezi Mitrani had just returned home to Rom Farm in Israel’s lower Galilee with four awards that some of his cheeses had earned at the Mondial du Fromage in France in September 2023. His family, traditional cheesemakers, and master craftspeople have been at the farm for three generations. While the farm on Mount Kammon overlooking Mount Meron isn’t frequently targeted by Hezbollah rockets, it has suffered from the loss of tourists seeking arsenal cheeses. 

The family consequently succumbed to selling half of their 120 goats shortly after the beginning of the war due to the escalation of Hezbollah’s attacks, its military might, and the growing uncertainty regarding a potential future war on Israel’s northern front. 

“We sell our cheese mostly inside our farm and just some of it to specialized stores in Tel Aviv. So, with fewer visitors, we have less demand. But even with all of these challenges, we’re proud to represent Israel in international events. We recently returned from France with four awards from the Mondial du Fromage in September. Our Gefen and Tom de Galilee cheeses won bronze in their categories, and Rakia and Tal won silver,” Ezi shared.  

Despite the current and potential war, Israelis are preparing to celebrate the Festival of Weeks, known in Hebrew as Shavuot, when many households eat traditional dairy products. This year, the holiday will last from sunset on June 11 until nightfall on June 13, commemorating the giving of the Torah and the new harvest. Shavuot this year also carries an added spiritual-agricultural significance, as it highlights the Jewish people's historical ties to dairy farming in the land of Israel despite past and present adversities.

The story of Israel’s dairy farmers and cheese producers is one of resiliency. Despite the Hamas and Hezbollah attacks, Israelis are finding ways to secure Jewish traditions and farms. 

“Now we’ve started to have visitors again, but because of the uncertainty of the war and the possibility of escalation with Hezbollah, we won’t purchase more goats for now because there’s too much risk. Having more animals also means hiring more people. Suddenly, if there is an escalation from the north of Israel, all the investments and jobs will need to be put on hold. So we prefer to be cautious in our business,” Mitrani, the dairy manager and head cheesemaker at Rom Farm, told The Media Line. He continued to explain that their cheese has special nutritional qualities because of the goat’s pasture, which is why so many visitors want to see it themselves. 

Israel's GDP from agriculture is US$3.4 billion, representing 1.3% of Israel’s national GDP, according to official Israeli government sources. “Today, there are about 650 active dairy farms in Israel. Among them, 16 farms are located in the Gaza envelope area, which represents about 6.5% of the dairy cows in Israel that are operating during this period,” a spokesperson of Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture told The Media Line. 

With the outbreak of the war in Gaza, many dairy farms came under threat. During events on Oct. 7, a dairy farm in Kfar Kisufim was destroyed by rockets, and the cows were moved to another farm. In response to Oct. 7, Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture established a new situation room that’s operational 24/7 to provide personal assistance to farmers.  

Despite this government effort, many dairy farmers are facing other consequences of the war, mainly the “largest workforce crisis since the establishment of the state. Many workers are being recruited for military service, others are not showing up for work out of fear, many foreign workers want to go back home, and workers from Palestinian Authority territories are under closure,” said a ministry statement.

Disruption in dairy

Regardless of the Gaza war, disruptions in global supply due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war were already mobilizing national efforts in Israel to preserve agriculture and dairy production while protecting Israel’s food security, according to the ministry. “This trend has continued in light of the challenges revealed during the war in Gaza, which emphasized the need to assess risks to the food supply for the Israeli population and to develop tools to cope with extreme situations on a long-term and national level, requiring the coordination between the Ministry of Agriculture, the Tax Authority, and the Knesset’s Economic and Financial Committees,” said a ministry representative.

Itzik Schneider, CEO of the Dairy Council, explained to The Media Line that “in 2023, dairy farmers received an average of 2.41 NIS [US$0.65] per liter of raw milk and currently, receive 2.40 NIS per liter. The Israeli cow has the highest milk yield in the world, producing an average of 12,074 liters of milk per year, and with about 120,000 cows, Israel is producing close to 1.5 billion liters of milk per year. Add to that the 10.3 million liters of sheep's milk and 12.9 million liters of goat's milk.”

According to Schneider, "The past year has been the most complex ever for the Israeli dairy sector. A year in which we lost dairy farmers, industry workers, and others were kidnapped. On Oct. 7 and the following days, the dairy farmers Reuven Heinik from Kibbutz Kissufim, Yiftach Gorny from Be'er Milka, Dror Or from Kibbutz Be'eri, Ofek Arazi from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak, and Yonatan Hajabi from Mikhini were murdered. May their memories be a blessing. Additionally, Yosef Alziadna and his three children, Bilal, Hamza, and Aisha, were kidnapped from the dairy farm in Kibbutz Holit alongside foreign workers. Also, 20 dairies were attacked, settlements were damaged, and many cows were killed,” he added.

Schneider commented that since Shavuot last year, about 20% of Israel’s milk production has been within reach of areas of conflict. However, he said, “Just as tank shells and bullets for rifles need to be produced in Israel, so does milk and fresh food. Remember, where there is a dairy, there is agriculture, there is farming, and there is life. Even though the import of dairy products to Israel is fully open without tariffs in various categories, including hard cheeses, soft cheeses, yogurts, dairy desserts, and creamy cheeses, the war taught us that the concept of relying on imports from neighboring countries and importers to reduce prices has collapsed. Despite everything, we managed to meet all challenges and continue to supply the full demands of the Israeli market,” Schneider added.

Meshek Shmueli, a third-generation traditional goat cheesemaker from Moshav Beer-Tovia, east of Ashdod, shared that his dairy has seen many wars and hopes this war in Gaza will be the last one. “Our dairy was established on my parents' farm in Moshav Be'er Tuvia, founded in 1930 by my grandparents, pioneers of the Third Aliyah. Our parents were born in Israel in 1940 and went through all of Israel's wars,” Shmueli told The Media Line.

He explained that his production is a small boutique dairy. “For the past ten years, we have been producing the same 14 types of cheese. Since the coronavirus pandemic, we've produced roughly the same quantities in recent years. We process about 100 liters of milk per day during the summer and around 80 liters per day during the winter, but in the first week after Oct. 7, we didn't produce cheese and had to dump the milk. It was impossible to work in the dairy making cheese with so many alarms,” he shared.

Shmueli said that, fortunately, he has received government compensation and support from foreign volunteers. “We received support from the State because our revenues were reduced by more than 50% in October. Although a week after Oct. 7, we managed to resume production with hard cheeses, in the first month after Oct. 7, hardly any customers came to our farm store,” he said, adding that this family continued to care for the goats and milk them. 

“While working in the pen, we ran to the bomb shelter. After Oct. 7, volunteers from abroad who came to work in agriculture also visited our store to buy cheese. Later, when local customers started returning, we also resumed making fresh, soft cheeses, milk, and yogurts,” he added

However, even with government support, dairy farming and cheese-making in Israel remain more expensive than in Europe. “In Israel, production costs are higher than in Europe, and there are kosher certification costs. There are more subsidies for artisanal farmers and cheese manufacturers like me in Europe. Boutique goat farms making cheese from their own milk are common,” Shmueli said.

Most of the artisanal cheese makers across Israel are still taking in the impact of the war, but since their operations usually don’t involve selling their products online or across multiple stores, it is also relatively simple for them to get back to work.

Despite high costs and security issues, specifically the attacks from Gaza and from Israel’s northern borders, the Jewish state's expertise in dairy and cheese-making is globally recognized. Israel boasts award-winning cheeses to the most productive cows in the world, as well as experts who speak at seminars and train professionals visiting Israel to learn its dairy industry secrets. 

The Israeli Dairy School, a leading dairy training center in Israel, used to host hundreds of guest experts visiting from around the world every month. As tourism came to a halt during the war, businesspeople in the dairy industry also stopped coming to Israel. 

“Since Oct. 7, all our plans stopped completely,” Ofier Langer, the Director of the Israeli Dairy School, told The Media Line. “During times of peace, we would have two seminars per month with 50 experts on average in each seminar. Because no one is flying to Israel, we’ve completely stopped. Since the Israeli Dairy School is a private organization that isn’t directly involved in dairy farming or cheese-making, we don’t receive the same support that the rest of the dairy industry gets,” he shared.

Agro-tourism and goat dairy farm Iza Pziza also worked with visitors before the war but has since experienced a drop in tourists to zero. Located 40 kilometers west of Jerusalem, the farm used to have many tourists from abroad. “But now we only have Israelis,” Alon Zaban, the owner of Iza Pizza, told The Media Line. 

“In production terms, it only changed that we’re making larger batches of hard cheese instead of fresh cheese because it’s easier to store for longer periods. With fewer visitors, the demand for fresh cheese also went down. All of this makes a big difference in our plans because making cheese in Israel is expensive in comparison to Europe,” Zaban added.

With four awards in their pocket and a potential war looming on the horrizon, Rom Farm continues to seek ways to lure dairy-lovers to their