Carmel is the export label under which Agrexco sold fruits, vegetables, and flowers to supermarkets worldwide. Consumers buying dates or grapes marked “Carmel” were purchasing goods cultivated on occupied Palestinian land, often grown with diverted water and protected by military enforcement.
Behind the brand identity lies a record of exploitation. Palestinian workers reported poverty wages, child labor, and hazardous conditions in Agrexco’s supply chain. Carmel products became a direct consumer link to the occupation economy, embedding everyday purchases in the machinery of land theft and apartheid agriculture.
Carmel Agrexco earns a High Impact rating for its direct role in sustaining Israeli settlement expansion and profiting from the systemic theft of Palestinian land, labor, and water. As a former state-backed exporter handling the majority of produce grown in illegal settlements, the company exemplifies how agriculture is used as a tool of occupation. Its operations depend on land expropriation in the West Bank, water diversion from Palestinian communities, and production inside military-protected zones that deny Palestinians access to their own resources.
The harm is material and violent: Palestinians working for Agrexco report child labour, hazardous conditions, and wages as low as $15 a day. Settlement produce is frequently mislabeled as “Made in Israel,” allowing the company to bypass international trade restrictions and disguise its complicity in war crimes. Despite being formally dissolved, Agrexco's business model. And its products continue through successor entities and global distributors, especially in the date industry.
Agrexco participants in the occupation economy. Its impact lies in how it industrialized settler-colonial agriculture and monetized dispossession.
Instead of Carmel exports, choose seasonal produce from local farmers’ markets or cooperatives. Dates and grapes sourced from Palestinian producers, fair-trade suppliers, or regional cooperatives avoid funding settlement agriculture.