Tnuva prioritises cottage cheese as Israel shortage drags on
A weeks-long production fault at Tnuva's Alon Tabor plant has left Israeli supermarkets short of cottage cheese. CEO Gadi Konya says the dairy giant is now prioritising cottage and white cheese output over other products. Technicians from abroad have refused to travel to Israel to repair the line, while demand grows around 4% a year.
Weeks of empty shelves
A severe shortage of cottage cheese has kept shelves in Israeli supermarkets bare for weeks, drawing anger from shoppers of one of the country's most popular dairy staples. The disruption stems from a production fault at a plant operated by Tnuva, Israel's largest food company and the dominant force in its dairy market.
The problem is centred on Tnuva's facility at Alon Tabor. According to Israeli reporting on the shortage, the malfunction has dragged on for weeks, and it remains unclear why Tnuva, a company that effectively controls the domestic milk market, has been unable to resolve it quickly. Sources inside the company have said that regular supply will return, without committing to a firm date.
Technicians unable to reach the plant
One obstacle cited in coverage of the outage is that technicians from abroad have refused to travel to Israel to repair the faulty equipment. The dependence on overseas specialists underlines how a single technical failure at one facility can ripple across an entire product category when production is concentrated in a few hands. Until the line is fixed, Tnuva is left working around the fault rather than eliminating it.
Tnuva reprioritises production
Speaking at the National Economic Conference, Tnuva chief executive Gadi Konya addressed the ongoing fault, the business daily Calcalist reported. Konya said the company is now prioritising the output of cottage cheese and white cheese over its other products in an effort to refill shelves. The move implies that other Tnuva lines will see reduced volumes while the shortage lasts.
Konya also pointed to rising demand as an added strain on supply. "If in the past cottage cheese grew in line with the pace of population growth, today it is growing at twice that rate, around 4%," he said, according to Calcalist. Faster consumption leaves less slack in the system when a production line goes down, turning a single fault into visibly empty shelves.
What it means for the market
Cottage cheese and white cheese are everyday products in Israel, and Tnuva's grip on dairy means that a fault at one of its plants is felt across the retail sector. With the company channelling capacity toward the two cheeses, availability of its other dairy lines is likely to tighten while the repair remains pending.
The episode highlights the vulnerability created by market concentration and by reliance on foreign technical expertise for critical equipment. For retailers and importers, a prolonged gap on the shelves could open room for substitute dairy products until Tnuva restores normal supply, even if cottage cheese itself remains largely a domestically produced item. For now, shoppers are left waiting for the company to name a date when the plant runs at full capacity again.
