Vegetable Prices Fell Despite Lower Imports, and This Is Why

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Vegetable prices fell despite the decline in imports, and this is why. Anat Siman Tov, 10 minutes ago, 1 0

A Ministry of Agriculture report reveals an inverse relationship between opening markets and consumer prices. Vegetable prices in retail chains fell by 12% for the first time since 2021, דווקא in a year when tomato and cucumber imports were cut by tens of percent. Why did onion imports once cause a sharp price increase, and what is expected to determine fruit prices this coming summer?

Is one of the most deeply rooted assumptions in the Israeli food market about to be reversed? For many years it was argued that increasing imports is the only way to lower fruit and vegetable prices, but new data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, led by Minister Avi Dichter, present a completely different picture. דווקא in a year when imports of some of the most popular vegetables in Israel dropped sharply, consumer prices fell significantly.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Research and Strategy Division for May 2026 show that 2025 marked a turning point in the fresh produce market: for the first time since 2021, prices of fresh vegetables to consumers declined, while at the same time there was a dramatic reduction in imports of the main vegetables that make up the Israeli salad.

The figures on the ground speak for themselves: the consumer price index for fresh vegetables fell by about 8% compared with 2024. In retail chains, an even sharper drop of almost 12% was recorded, and in the wholesale market prices fell by about 13%. Behind these figures lies a significant structural change in the composition of the consumer market.

Tomato imports to Israel fell in 2025 to about 9,000 tons בלבד, compared with about 29,000 tons in 2024 and an annual average of about 40,000 tons between 2020 and 2023. Cucumber imports also declined significantly, totaling about 5,000 tons בלבד, compared with about 7,000 tons the previous year and about 16,000 tons in earlier years.

Another notable example is the onion market: after an unusually large import of about 56,000 tons in 2024, which was accompanied by an increase of more than 50% in consumer onion prices, imports in 2025 were cut to about 24,000 tons בלבד, while prices returned to the levels seen before the wave of increases.

These data point to a direct and interesting link between import volumes and the final price the consumer pays at the register. Contrary to the common claim that increasing imports necessarily lowers the shopping basket, the Ministry of Agriculture says that in many cases excess imports created instability in the local market, while reliance on Israeli production helped stabilize supply and in practice led to lower prices.

However, when it comes to fruit, the consumer picture is still more complex. Unlike vegetables, the fruit sector is characterized by long growing cycles, and in some cases many years pass between planting a new orchard and the start of commercial marketing of the crop. Added to this is the impact of the security situation, since a large share of Israel’s orchards is concentrated in the north, which suffered significant damage during the fighting period.

Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture estimates that it is still too early to determine how fruit prices will develop in the coming years. While a clear trend of lower prices can already be identified in the vegetable market, in the fruit sector the effects of the war and the damage to northern agriculture are expected to continue affecting supply and prices for the public in the near future.

In other words, we see that contrary to forecasts and basic assumptions, increased local vegetable production lowered consumer prices, in contrast to the traditional position of the Finance Ministry, which supports increasing imports at the expense of local production.

Avi Dichter, vegetable imports, fruit prices