One year we are hurt because of the war, and the next year because of nature.
March cold snaps and rain severely damaged pollination and fruit development around the Sea of Galilee, with some farms harvesting only 120 tons versus 700 tons last year. Growers faced opposite extremes in consecutive years: 2025 brought record yields but price collapse; 2026 brings climate disaster after war-related export market losses.
- March cold and rain disrupted pollination around the Sea of Galilee, cutting yields by up to 80%
- Kibbutz Kinneret's harvest fell from 700 tons in 2025 to an expected 120 tons in 2026
- 2025 brought record yields but prices collapsed to one shekel per kilogram due to oversupply and export market closures
- Regional packing houses report this year's mango volume is the lowest in at least a decade
Israeli mango growers face an 80% crop collapse after March cold and rain disrupted pollination, with yields expected at just 20-30% of 2025 levels, likely driving sharp consumer price increases.
The mango orchards around the Sea of Galilee are in crisis. What should have been a recovery year after the market disasters of 2025 has instead become something worse—a climate catastrophe that has gutted the harvest by as much as 80 percent. Farmers are now bracing for yields of just 20 to 30 percent of last year's crop, a collapse so severe that some growers say they cannot remember anything like it in their working lives.
Alex Kaplan manages the orchards at Kibbutz Kinneret, where mangoes have been grown for roughly half a century. He is 50 years old and has spent five years working with the fruit. Last year, his kibbutz harvested 700 tons of mangoes. This year, he expects to reach a maximum of 120 tons. The damage to Kinneret alone runs into several million shekels. "The situation is simply a catastrophe," he said. "There has been a collapse of more than 80% in the size of this year's crop compared with last year."
The trouble began in March, when cold weather and rain swept through the region during the critical flowering and fruit-set period. Mango trees need temperatures above 20 degrees Celsius to thrive during this window. This year, temperatures dropped well below that threshold, with some days reaching only 10 degrees. In that cold, the insects that pollinate mango flowers—transferring pollen from male to female flowers—become sluggish and inactive. Without pollination, there is no fertilization, and without fertilization, there is no fruit. By April, the damage was unmistakable. Many flower clusters remained bare. Where fruit had begun to develop, it often grew abnormally and without a pit, the structure essential to a mango's proper development. Mangoes without pits remain stunted, burst on the tree, and have no commercial value. They hang until they dry out and fall.
What makes this year's disaster particularly bitter is that it follows a year of the opposite extreme. In 2025, flowering conditions were ideal. No heat waves damaged the crop. The result was a record harvest—but also a collapse in revenue. Kaplan harvested so much fruit that he had to sell it for about one shekel per kilogram, a price that did not come close to covering the costs of growing, picking, and transport. The European boycott and the blockade of shipping routes by the Houthis had destroyed major export markets. Israel itself was flooded with mangoes, and prices fell through the floor. "It was a record year in terms of the quantity we picked, but at the same time a negative record in terms of the return to the grower," Kaplan said.
Robert Kennedy Amrousi, 58, a mango grower from the moshav of Migdal, estimates his crop this year will be about 30 percent of what it was in 2025. He remembers the frustration of last year vividly—hundreds of tons left on the ground because the price made harvesting pointless. Now he faces the opposite problem. "One year we are hurt because of the war, and the next year because of nature," he said. "I hope at least that prices will be good this year and that we will get a few more shekels for every kilo."
The regional packing houses that process and distribute the fruit are also feeling the squeeze. Anat Leshem, CEO of the Tzemach Avocado packing house, which also handles mangoes and corn, said this year's mango volume would be the lowest in at least a decade. "We will pack the smallest amount of mangoes in the past decade, and perhaps in even more years," she said. "This time I have only one-third of the average annual quantity. It will be a thin season in terms of work and we will have to cope." She expects consumer prices to rise significantly as supplies tighten.
For the farmers themselves, the consecutive shocks have created a grinding sense of helplessness. They cannot control the weather. They cannot control geopolitical events that close export markets. What they can control—the care of their trees, the timing of their work—has proven insufficient against forces far larger than any individual farm. The question now is whether prices will rise enough to offset the smaller harvest, or whether growers will face yet another year of losses.
Citações Notáveis
The situation is simply a catastrophe. There has been a collapse of more than 80% in the size of this year's crop compared with last year.— Alex Kaplan, manager of orchards at Kibbutz Kinneret
In 2025, we actually dealt with a record harvest, and at the same time with prices in free fall. It was a record year in terms of quantity but a negative record in terms of return to the grower.— Alex Kaplan
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why did the cold in March matter so much? Couldn't the trees just flower again later?
Mango trees have a narrow window. They flower once a year, and if that window is disrupted by cold, there's no second chance. The insects that pollinate them need warmth to be active. Below 20 degrees, they slow down. No pollination means no fruit set, and that's the year gone.
So the farmers were expecting a good year?
Yes. March started promisingly. Kaplan said the flowering season looked good at first. Then the temperatures dropped and the rain came, and within weeks it became clear the crop was damaged. By April, they could see the problem—flowers without fruit, fruit without pits, fruit too small to sell.
What about last year? You mentioned 2025 was different.
Completely different problem. Perfect weather, record harvest. But the markets were flooded. Prices collapsed to one shekel per kilogram—basically nothing. The European boycott and the Houthi blockade had closed export markets. Farmers were picking fruit and losing money on every ton.
So they went from too much fruit to too little.
Exactly. And both years they lost money. Last year from oversupply, this year from climate. Kaplan said it himself: one year hurt by war, the next by nature. There's no winning.
Will prices go up now?
Almost certainly. The packing houses are reporting their lowest volumes in a decade. Supply is down 70 percent or more. Leshem expects prices to be higher than consumers are used to. But whether that helps the farmers depends on how much higher prices go—and whether it's enough to cover their losses.
Is this a one-year problem or something bigger?
That's the question. One grower said he'd never seen a drop this sharp in his working life. But climate volatility is becoming the new normal. The farmers are exposed to both market shocks and weather extremes, and they have almost no control over either.