A private Israeli exporter of agricultural produce, marketing vegetables, fruits, flowers, propagating materials and herbs.
The company’s brand-names include: Carmel, Carmel Bio-Top, Carmel Berry, Coral and Alesia.
Carmel Agrexco is a private enterprise owned by Ampa Group, a private Israeli holding company owned by Shlomi Fogel and the Nakash brothers. Ampa Group is active in the fields of real estate, finance, agriculture and energy.
The company was established by the Israeli government in 1956, under the name Agrexco, as a state-owned first Israeli agriculture export company. In 2011, Agrexco entered a formal liquidation process and was acquired by Bickel Group. In 2016, it entered a second liquidation process and was acquired by Ampa.
In April 2022, Who Profits team documented nine of the company’s packing houses in four settlements in the Jordan Valley: three Herbs packhouses, a packing house of grapes and flowers for export, and a fish packing house in the settlement of Roi; three Herbs packhouses in Mehola; a packing house of cut flowers for export in the settlement of Argaman; and a herbs packhouse in the settlement of Na’ama.
The company’s subsidiary Carmel Blueberry grows berries in the occupied Syrian Golan which are marketed by Carmel Agrexco under the brand name Carmel Blueberry. The berries are grown on a 120,000 square-meter farm in the occupied Syrian Golan which produces about 250 tons of fruit per season. The farm was established in full cooperation with Carmel Agrexco and its staff, which integrated advanced agricultural technologies into the farm and developed some of its berry varieties.
According to an interview with the company’s co-owner and chairman, Shlomi Fogel, the company’s target is to expand to a 1,300,000 square-meters farm.
In addition, Ampa Real-Estate, a subsidiary of the parent company Ampa Group, built the Ramot Resort Hotel project in Ramot settlement in the Syrian Golan. Ampa Israel, another subsidiary of the Ampa Group, built and marketed two residential projects in the settlement of Sal’it in the occupied West Bank as part of an expansion of the settlement.
For more information about Agrexco’s past involvement in the occupation, see Who Profits’ 2013 update “Agrexco Is Back in Business” and 2014 in-depth report “Made in Israel: Agricultural Export from Occupied Territories”.
