Agriculture Ministry Pushes for Wheat Stock Reporting: 'Allows for Prioritizing Grain Ships in Ports'

The Knesset's Economic Committee began preparing a government bill today that will require owners of significant emergency stocks to report monthly on their wheat and animal feed inventory. This move is designed to allow the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to implement the policy of the National Emergency Authority (RAHEL) and ensure functional continuity in the supply of bread and animal products. The Food Security Administration emphasizes that currently, the ministry operates without an accurate situation picture, which complicates preparation for changing attribution scenarios, strikes in warehouses, or geopolitical disruptions in global supply chains.

Operationally and logistically, the new legislation is expected to affect the management of queues in seaports. During the discussion, the Ministry of Agriculture noted that accurate operational information on the state of stocks in Israel would allow action against RAHEL to give priority in unloading to wheat and grain ships in cases of expected shortage. The need for this information was highlighted by the events of October 7 and the change in RAHEL's attribution scenarios, which require Israel - as an 'island state' dependent on maritime imports - to ensure the availability of raw materials for food and grain at any given moment.

During the discussion, concerns were raised by industry representatives regarding the protection of trade secrets and the privacy of the information transferred to the state. The Manufacturers Association, which represents the flour mills, expressed principled support for increasing the emergency stock but demanded a regulation of information security procedures to prevent leakage that would harm competition. Meanwhile, farmers' representatives warned that expected reforms in the dairy industry could reduce the volume of livestock in Israel, which would directly affect the demand for grain and the need to store these stocks in the future.

The regulatory context of the law does not change the state's authority to adjust stocks in an emergency, which already exists today, but focuses on creating an orderly data infrastructure. The completion of the legislation is expected to provide the Ministry of Agriculture with a management tool that will allow it to regulate imports and storage more intelligently, while reducing the operational pressure created when delays occur in ports or in warehouses like Dagon. The discussions on the clauses of the law are expected to continue next week.