Shoppers coming into retail chains in contemporary days found out that the cabinets typically protecting cottage cheese and white cheese glance utterly other. As an alternative of the acquainted plastic tubs, there lay programs of labneh, bitter cream, and different dairy merchandise to fill the void left at the back of. We now have virtually grown familiar with the cottage cheese scarcity, which is able to slightly be discovered. Now, then again, the dairy provide disaster is increasing to the white cheese class.
Whilst till a couple of days in the past it was once tricky to seek out most commonly cottage cheese, in contemporary days the phenomenon has expanded to white cheese cabinets as smartly. “I was at branches of three different chains we have in the neighborhood,” a pissed off client informed Walla, “and not a single one of them had even one tub of white cheese. And I am not talking about price-controlled cheese, but 9% white cheese, 3%, even smooth and low-fat cheeses and creams that reach a price of NIS 15, you cannot find. Someone here has gone crazy. How did we get to a state where you cannot give a child a sandwich with white cheese, and nobody cares.”
Meals marketplace resources provide an explanation for that the dearth of white cheese stems from the dearth of cottage cheese, with one consuming into the opposite. “The cottage cheese shortage started weeks ago, and it is getting worse,” he says. “Retailers order 10 crates and receive barely half a crate, and in peripheral areas they sometimes make do with only one tub, which is inconceivable.
“When there’s no cottage cheese, the general public switches to white cheese and begins hoarding at house, making a scarcity because of heavy call for. That is an escalating tailspin that will have to be stopped. I don’t perceive the place the agriculture minister, the economic system minister, the finance minister, or any regulator is to handle this topic already. If there’s no selection, then please, open quotas and get started uploading.”
Supermarket cheese shelves, June 18, 2026 (credit: REUVEN CASTRO)The Germans try to assist via Zoom
The root of the white cheese panic begins, as mentioned, with a computer malfunction at Tnuva’s cottage cheese production plant in Alon Tavor.
The problem is not in the production line, but in the automated warehouse that is supposed to dispatch the pallets to the distribution trucks. The cottage cheese is produced, packaged, and ready for marketing, but a large portion of it simply fails to leave the dairy and reach the shelves of retail chains.
According to sources familiar with the details, disruptions in the automated warehouse system have been ongoing for over two months. It is a system that manages the movement of pallets inside the warehouse and their dispatch to trucks.
However, it turns out that technicians from the German company Dematic actually arrived in Israel in recent weeks for a scheduled maintenance visit at the Osem plant. So why didn’t they stop by Tnuva as well? According to them, it is a different team, with different skills, whose visit dates are scheduled months in advance. The visit that was supposed to take place at Tnuva during Operation Lion’s Roar was canceled following the war. The next date is set only for a few months from now, and its occurrence also depends on the geopolitical situation.
Meanwhile, Dematic personnel are trying to assist Tnuva teams remotely via phone calls and Zoom, and at the same time, Tnuva employees are operating some of the systems manually. This is a limited solution that does not allow a return to the normal rate of supply.
At the same time, since the beginning of the year, demand for dairy products has risen by about 4%, partly because fewer Israelis traveled abroad due to the security situation. Dairies explain that the high demand and the gaps created since the Shavuot holiday make it difficult to replenish stocks, and therefore any logistical delay is immediately felt on the shelves.
In contrast to periods when there was suspicion of an artificial shortage due to the update of the target price mechanism, which affects all dairy product prices, this time it seems the situation is different.
Cottage cheese (credit: SHUTTERSTOCK)”What passion may Tnuva have in now not promoting cottage cheese?”
The ongoing shortage also raised allegations against Tnuva, according to which it allegedly has an interest in creating an artificial cottage cheese shortage to increase demand for other dairy products it produces. The industry rejects these allegations completely.
“What passion may Tnuva have in now not promoting cottage cheese?” says a source familiar with the details. “In spite of everything, she makes cash on each and every bath, and when the cottage cheese is not bought, she loses. The corporate has 9 crops around the nation, and malfunctions can occur on a daily basis.
“This is a computer malfunction, and Dematic – the company that operates it – refuses to send a technician to Israel due to the security situation. Since the dairy is mostly automated, it is not possible to bypass the system manually, otherwise they would have done it long ago, so a situation has arisen where there is no problem producing the cottage cheese, it is just impossible to supply it.”
The lack is especially noticeable as a result of Tnuva is the biggest white cheese manufacturer in Israel, whilst Strauss holds about 30% of the marketplace. Each firms are answerable for lots of the white cheese bought in Israel, so any trade in call for is felt virtually instantly on retail chain cabinets.
Tnuva and Strauss declare that white cheese manufacturing and provide are running as same old and feature even been boosted to satisfy the call for.
