In a normal year the harvest would have started weeks earlier, but until the truce farmers were afraid of being mistaken for Hamas militants and targeted by Israeli forces if they ventured out into the olive groves.

Some lands were also damaged by fighting or the passage of military vehicles, while some farmers were displaced from their homes and unable to get back to their groves.

“This war destroyed us. There’s hardly any production. The majority of the harvest was wasted,” said Fathy Abu Salah, who was picking olives with a small team, sorting them from leaves and twigs on a groundsheet and collecting them in a wheelbarrow.

He said that normally they would harvest enough olives to fill 12 containers, but this year they would fill just one. There were other problems linked to the war, he said, such as a dearth of fuel to transport the olives to the nearest press.

“We are trying to do this with all of the resources we have in these six days (of truce),” said Abu Salah. “This fruit is all we have. This is how we make a living year after year.”

At the Wafy press in Khan Younis, the machinery had cranked into operation weeks late. Sacks of olives were being brought in on the backs of carts pulled by donkeys.

Olives were coming down a chute that rattled from side to side before falling into the press. Thick golden oil was pouring out into a metal vat, while men waited to collect it in yellow jerry cans.

“When the truce started, we were thinking about whether or not we were going to work. But then came the problem of the olive press which needs electricity, and there is no electricity, meaning we had to find fuel, and finding fuel is a crisis that everyone is facing,” said manager Mohamed Wafy.

“There were some who were able to transport their olives to us and had to buy fuel in the black market at much higher prices. As soon as we secured access to fuel, we were able to open the olive press, even if it’s working at minimum capacity.”

Wafy said almost all of his own olives fell to the ground before he was able to get to his land. He said some farmers had found nothing, while others had harvested a fraction of what they would normally expect.

“The season is gone,” he said.

— Reporting for Reuters by Bassam Masoud and Saleh Salem; additional reporting by Fadi Shana; writing by Estelle Shirbon.

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Samuel Taylor, a New York City-based farm inputs analyst for RaboResearch Food and AgriBusiness, delivered a presentation on the fertilizer market during the firm’s Fall Harvest Outlook webinar on Oct. 25.

Taylor presented a fertilizer “affordability index” which is measured using global fertilizer prices against global crop prices with a baseline of zero. Last September, the value was 0.01, down from around 0.25 in July. By comparison, the index had fallen to minus 0.65 in Jan. 2022, its lowest value since the Great Recession of 2008. Despite this, the index, and the worldwide affordability of fertilizers, are expected to improve into July 2024.

Separated by fertilizer type, potash had the best affordability index value at 0.32 (historical average at 0.11) in September, followed by phosphates at 0.07 (average at 0.11) and nitrogen at minus 0.19 (average at minus 0.04). Taylor predicted global nitrogen prices to increase by more than five per cent, while global prices for potash and phosphates will remain virtually unchanged.

RaboResearch Food and AgriBusiness also estimated a three per cent year-by-year increase in global fertilizer usage in 2023 and further projected a five per cent rise in 2024.

“Since (the Russian invasion of Ukraine), we’ve seen a rationalization towards fundamentals. A lot of the price action was built on timing and also capacity of supply and demand,” Taylor explained. “There’s a little bit of clarity there and a little bit more re-establishment of supply chains.”

In North America, Taylor added that year-by-year, prices for ammonia will be down 50 per cent, potash retreating by 44 per cent and phosphates pulling back by more than 10 per cent. In addition, prices for herbicides will be cut 50 per cent, fungicides 40 per cent and insecticides 25 per cent.

“From a cost-structure standpoint, there are some positive elements that you can point to,” he said.

However, Taylor warned the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict could cause additional issues. In 2021, Israel produced 3.96 million tonnes of potash and 1.07 million tonnes of phosphates — seven and two per cent of global market share, respectively.

“As far as we’re aware, (Israel is) functioning as normal,” Taylor added. “However, within the context of quite a large mobilization, there is the risk in the future that there could be some disruptions to logistics, to manufacturing. But there is nothing to report on (now).”

— Adam Peleshaty reports for MarketsFarm from Stonewall, Man.

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“This is a devastating situation for millions of civilians impacted by the conflict on both sides, and we are deeply aware of the escalating humanitarian need in Gaza,” said Foodgrains Bank executive director Andy Harrington in an Oct. 23 news release.

Over 6,000 men, women and children in Israel and Gaza have died in two weeks of conflict, the Foodgrains Bank said. More than 1.4 million people have been displaced.

As a member of the Humanitarian Coalition, the Foodgrains Bank is working with partner organizations and local groups to bring humanitarian assistance to the area.

“As a humanitarian organization with members and partners working in some of the most challenging regions of the world, we believe all people have a right to receive life-saving assistance, and ongoing access to basic necessities including food, water, medical care and shelter,” Harrington said. ”

“These necessities are quickly running out in Gaza, and an urgent humanitarian response is desperately needed.”

One of the greatest challenges groups face is the issue of access, said Stefan Epp-Koop, the Canadian Foodgrains Bank’s senior humanitarian manager.

“At this stage, there is almost no access into Gaza for humanitarian organizations to provide aid, or for local partners in Gaza to access desperately needed supplies. The provision of humanitarian assistance is also tremendously challenging given the risks involved amid the current conflict,” he said.

On Oct. 21 a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed into southern Gaza for the first time since Israel began the siege.

Twenty flatbed trucks, flying white flags and honking their horns, exited the Rafah crossing after checks and headed into Gaza’s southern area which includes the major towns of Rafah and Khan Younis where hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by Israel’s unrelenting air war are sheltering. 

Israel’s “total siege” of Gaza, launched after the Oct. 7 cross-border attack on southern Israel by militants of the Islamist movement Hamas, has left the enclave’s 2.3 million people running out of food, water, medicines and fuel. 

Palestinian officials were disappointed that fuel supplies were not included in the consignment of food, water and medical supplies and added that the aid was only 3% of what used to get into Gaza before the crisis. 

“Excluding the fuel from the humanitarian aid means the lives of patients and injured will remain at risk. Gaza hospitals are running out of the basic requirements to pursue medical interventions,” the Gaza health ministry said. 

The United Nations said the convoy included life-saving supplies would be received and distributed by the Palestinian Red Crescent, with the consent of Hamas, which rules Gaza. 

By Oct. 23, aid and security sources reported that two more convoys had arrived via the Rafah crossing from Egypt.

–with files from Reuters.

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