1927 - 1932

For about five years I was the manager of the Tnuva BIA"F (eggs, vegetables, poultry, fruits) department located in Tel Aviv. Several times I traveled to Egypt, taking with me produce such as: honey, bananas and grapes. I even managed to organize the bananas blanching on a national scale (including the private sector).

Throughout the years I was working for Tnuva, my relationship with the late Eliezer Yaffe, was very poor. The Twelfth Congress brought about the decision to establish two settlements. A second settlement by the Zionist socialist association of Jewish workers "Ahdut HaAvoda" (Unity of Labor) and a settlement by the Zionist socialist political party
"Hapoel Hatzair" (The Yound Worker) headed by the late Eliezer Yaffe.

Eliezer Yaffe who resented me, won his victory at the first Mapai (Workers' Party of the Land of Israel) conference. The majority of the Tnuva members were the supporters of Eliezer Yaffe while the members of "Ahdut Ha'Avoda abandoned the scene.

At that time I was abroad (with my late brother in Paris). Upon my return, I found that the Tnuva members developed hard feelings towards me. I then made up my mind to resign.

I left Tnuva in early April, thus abandoning my mission of 25 years at the Histadrut.
With my heart filled with sorrow I left. Not because of lack of physical or organizational ability, not because of greediness or breach of trust, but simply because unjustified hatred and personal revenge.

In an act of protest I chose to be engaged in the marketing of the private sector's produce. I established the "Palestine Fruit and Vegetable Selling Co." named "The Bursa".
One can say: " A man might lose his world in one hour"


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A proposal for laying the foundation for fruit and vegetable import company

It has been agreed among the main importers in the country to establish a nationwide company for importing fruit and vegetable from the neighboring countries. The purpose was to prevent competition among the importers and to enable obtaining produce at good prices and terms. The owners - stock holders and wholesalers 21 firms including 14 stockholders and 7 wholesalers are the partners in the company. The difference between the founding members and the rest of the wholesalers is reflected in sharing loss and profit, in priority given to the stockholders,

Towards the formation of Tel Aviv Wholesale Market for agricultural produce

In every area we always try to develop and improve the relevant branch. While in all other areas such as: farming, trading, industry there has been a great deal of improvement, we have not done much progress in the marketing of fruits and vegetables.

The need for a Wholesale Market for agricultural produce was met by Tel Aviv municipality focusing on the establishment of the market, adjusting the technical and set up aspects to the suppliers and customers needs. It was necessary to introduce one basic change in the marketing system - the produce should be sold to the wholesalers and then to the grocers. The idea was to avoid the commission burden imposed on the producers.

The fruits and vegetables were not to be sold directly to the grocers by the producers' cooperatives in units or half units. Had we continued the direct sale, we could not have managed to sell all the produce. The purpose of selling thru wholesalers was to increase the production.

A good example is selling potatoes according to the proposed method, which proved to be useful for the producers and the wholesalers at the same time. We have to stick to this method with the selling of all other fruits and vegetables. This way we can not only sell the full quantity of produce at a fair price, but we can double and triple the quantity.

We cannot be stuck in the old selling methods from15-20 years ago, especially as we plan to increase the produce quantities.

The new selling method will be useful to all parties involved. All fruits and vegetables will be assembled in one place, the number of wholesalers will be determined, a list of wholesalers will be defined according to their Municipal license.

According to a mutual agreement between the producers and the wholesalers, the latter are not permitted to buy fruits or vegetables from any source other than the wholesale market. Selling produce to the grocers had to be done only thru the wholesalers. Having all the produce in one place enables municipality auditing, limits the imported produce, encourages market penetrating of local suppliers and gets the producer the best price

Unlike the old system, the wholesaler will buy the produce and will not lower the price. In case he decides to reduce the price, then it will be for his account.

As per this sale method, the producer will pay a much smaller percentage for this sale.
The sale will be cash only, with no competition among the agents.

The wholesalers will maintain the agreement with the producers representative in good will and trust and will buy all the produce from the wholesale market for fruits and vegetables.