The Israeli Minister of Agriculture, Avi Dichter, met today for a working meeting with the Thai Minister of Labor, Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn. The meeting was attended by professionals from the Ministries of Agriculture, Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior, Population and Immigration Authority.

At the meeting, the Thai Minister stated that workers from Thailand in the field of agriculture, who have not worked here before, will be able to come to work in agriculture for 5 years, as was the case before July 10.

During the meeting, ministers toured farms, including those used for the Ministry's agricultural research, and were very impressed by the level and rigor in the development of grape varieties for food and wine. In one of the greenhouses, the Minister even met with workers from Thailand. Also during the meeting, Thailand's Minister of Labor requested to increase the number of foreign workers from Thailand by another 10,000 people and in consultation with the Population and Immigration Authority the request was approved. Furthermore, the Minister called for increasing the number of well-paid people coming from Thailand to Israel, and Minister Dichter indicated that he would take action on this with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. At the end of the meeting, Minister Dichter praised his Thai guest for the hard and dedicated work of the Thai ambassador to Israel in the difficult and complicated months since July 10, and in response to that, the Thai Labor Minister said that will bring the matter to the attention of the Prime Minister of Thailand.

As you may recall, following the October 7 attack, the Thai government banned its citizens from traveling to work in Israel, and approximately one-third of workers there returned home on emergency flights organized by the Thai government. This restriction has now been lifted and new employees from Thailand will be able to come to work in Israel (in addition to employees who were previously in Israel).

Since the outbreak of the "Iron Swords" war, Israeli agriculture has entered into the largest labor crisis it has known since the creation of the State. This is due to workers who were recruited from the reserves, foreign workers who returned to their country of origin, as well as Palestinian Palestinian Authority workers who were denied entry to Israel in accordance with the decisions of the government and security forces. So far, more than 15,000 foreign workers have returned to Israel, most of them from Thailand.