Negev Nectars gets squeezed

It was environmentally sustainable. But Negev Nectars wasn’t financially sustainable. Three years after launching, the company, which aimed to develop a North American market for small-scale Israeli farmers producing olive oil, jams and other foodstuffs using a breakthrough, desert-friendly approach to agriculture, has suspended operations. However, its founder, Marvin Israelow, 65, who has been passionate about Israel’s Negev region since his days as a kibbutz volunteer there in 1966, said he’s not abandoning the enterprise and instead hopes eventually to “reinvent” and try again. Israelow said the market for gourmet olive oil, the company’s signature product, is growing, even as the number of suppliers also grows.