Agritour in 2011 to Feature Israel

By Jane Eckert

An important component of good marketing is learning what others are doing so that you can capitalize on making every aspect of your business as good as it can be.  That is a main reason why Eckert AgriMarketing began offering agritours, plus, as farmers, we are always interested in seeing and learning about farming in other places.

Well this year, we are really stepping out of the box now, and I am so fascinated with what I am learning that I wanted to share it with you.  On January 4-13, 2011, we are going to tour Israel, a nation determined to feed themselves without any imports.

Israel is a relatively small country with a population of 7.4 million people and their goal has been, as I said, to grow enough food to feed themselves without imports.  They are actually getting very close to achieving this goal even though it is a land that is more than half-covered with desert. The annual rainfall in the country varies greatly from 2 inches in the south to 28 inches in the north.

Managing their water supply is a top priority.  In 1964, they began the Israeli National Water Carrier, which is an elaborate system of pipes, conduits and tunnels which carry water from the Sea of Galilee in the north, to the rain starved areas in the center and south.  Israel has also been forced to develop further newer technologies for drip irrigation to help them make the best of the one thing we all need most in our growing season – water. Sheltered (greenhouse) cultivation has likewise been experiencing accelerated growth in Israel in recent years.

This might interest you:  I read where the Israeli Minister of Agriculture, Shalom Simhon, said, “The Arava is the only place in the world where the desert has been conquered, thanks to innovative water technologies.”

Exploring yet another avenue, Israelis scientists continue to work on tapping into the vast deposits of water from the Ice Age which are buried way below ground level, but can potentially present a huge new water source for the country.

Farming is Israel is done on the kibbutz. The kibbutz is a communal agricultural settlement, typically in a rural location.  All property on the kibbutz is owned communally and all income generated is shared by the members. Families live, work and eat together and are encouraged to start small businesses if they choose to do so.

Therefore, the majority of our 2011 Agritour will be spent visiting and staying on various kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz).  One tour stop of particular interest for fruit growers will be Kibbutz Ortal, where we will spend time with Steve Applebaum, a speaker and member of the IFTA.  “Apple Steve” as he is known, was born in Orlando, Florida and decided to move to Israel to live and work on the kibbutz since 1985. Steve is the irrigation and fertilizer expert of over 500 acres of apples, sweet cherries, nectarines, peaches and wine grapes. We will see their orchards, state of the art packing house, as well as tour the largest computerized dairy in the Middle East.  Kibbutz Ortal is home to about 50 families and we will share a lunch with them in their cafeteria.

We will also be touring and tasting at the Golan Heights Winery, which takes grapes from fifteen kibbutzim to make their many varietal blends of wine. Other crops of particular importance in Israel include vegetables, cotton, beef, poultry, sunflowers, dates, mango, banana and wheat.  Citrus is their main export crop.

We will not only experience the kibbutz life during our touring but we will be talking with their leaders about their growing and marketing techniques, and we will be spending several nights at two different kibbutz.  The Kibbutz Ginossar, located on the western banks of the Sea of Galilee, is one of our overnight stops. While this kibbutz started as an agricultural community, they now derive their primary income from ag tourism.

Kibbutz Yahel is located in the southern Arava region and is truly an oasis in the heart of the desert, surrounded by the hills of the Negev highlands.  This is the smallest kibbutz that we will tour with just 30 families in residence.  Their economy is based on agriculture and simple desert tourism. Our lodging here provides a pastoral desert vista with colored sandstone, steep cliffs, valleys, salt marshes and dry riverbeds.

A special treat will be to experience Bedouin hospitality and learn about their lifestyle at the Kfar Hanokdim, a green oasis in the desert with shade areas created by palm leaves and biblically inspired gardens.  Lunch will be served in one of the Bedouin banqueting tents after a camel ride in the desert.

Of particular interest will be our stop at the Yair Research Station which was established in 1991.  The station was established to study the unique environmental conditions of the Arava Valley that includes large daily swings of temperature and low humidity.  They have created new protocols for growing in this region in sheltered systems (greenhouses) and share their knowledge with the kibbutz agriculture community.  The research station has developed new products that may look strange to us—for instance watermelons that grow on trees, striped tomatoes and skinny peppers.  Wow, sure good thing that Newton wasn’t sitting under this tree. Wouldn’t you love to have that tree in the middle of your agritourism farm!

We will also visit the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES), the premier environmental education and research program in the Middle East, preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the region’s environmental challenges. The AIES gets involved in cutting edge research, which is shared with the entire region.

Agriculture and tourism are recognized as working well together in Israel and one of the most productive examples will be when we visit the shop and restaurant owned by Kibbutz Kalia. Here, we will likely see some new and unique examples of farm marketing.

An important aspect of this particular tour, if you are interested, is that we certainly acknowledge that we are visiting an area known as the Holy Land—considered sacred to Christians, Jews, and Muslims.  While we are traveling to Israel to see their agriculture, this trip should also be considered a spiritual pilgrimage in that we will be visiting many of the areas and sights important to the Christian faith, and we will be spending a couple of days in Jeruselem. If you are interested to know more about the January 4-13, 2011 Agritour to Israel, you can read the full brochure on my website, www.eckertagrimarketing.com or call me and I’d be happy to mail it to you.

Jane Eckert is the founder of Eckert AgriMarketing (www.eckertagrimarketing.com), a full-service marketing and public relations firm that helps farmers to sell directly to consumers, diversify operations and become tourist destinations. She is also CEO of www.RuralBounty.com, a search directory for agritourism farms and ranches in North America. Jane can be reached at 314-862-6288 or you may email her directly.