Duties on imported olive oil won’t be cut, in bid to save local industry

Import duties on a number of food items were reduced by Israel’s Finance Minister in July – but local olive producers have successfully lobbied for imported olive oil to be excluded from the list, in a bid to boost the flailing local industry. Producers put pressure on members of the Kedmi committee, the commission looking into ways to reduce the cost of food in Israel, not to cut duty on imported olive oil brands, saying that such a reduction would deliver a blow to the local industry. They claim the local industry is in a precarious state and that imported oils are 15% to 20% cheaper than local products.