News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Orchards suffered almost 400 million shekels ($112 million) damage because of high winds, rains and snow in January, according to Ilan Eshel, chairman of the association of fruit and vegetable growers. Bananas, which are sensitive to frost, suffered the most damage, followed by avocado and mango crops.

However, the cold weather bodes well for growers of summer fruits, including cherries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, grapes and apples The trees need the cold to "to go to sleep" in the winter, enabling them to produce more fruit in the summer.