Israeli consumers have been facing a months-long shortage of cottage cheese on supermarket shelves, and the reason is not a lack of production—but a major logistics failure compounded by the security situation.

According to reports, Tnuva’s dairy plant at Alon Tavor continues to produce and package cottage cheese as usual. However, a severe malfunction in the automated warehouse’s computer system has prevented large quantities of finished products from leaving the facility and reaching stores.

The malfunction affects the warehouse system responsible for managing pallets and loading products onto distribution trucks, leaving much of the inventory stranded despite normal production.

The system is operated by international automation company Dematic, and repairs have been delayed for more than a month because specialized technicians from overseas have refused to travel to Israel due to the security situation.

While Tnuva has attempted to work around the problem manually, the highly automated nature of the warehouse has limited those efforts.

The shortage has been made worse by increased demand. Since the beginning of the year, demand for dairy products has risen by approximately 4%, largely because fewer Israelis have traveled abroad amid the ongoing security situation, resulting in greater domestic consumption.

Industry officials rejected claims that the shortage is intentional or designed to steer consumers toward other products, stressing that Tnuva loses money on every container of cottage cheese it cannot sell.

The shortage is currently limited primarily to cottage cheese, with no similar supply issues reported for milk, white cheese, or regular yogurt. Importing cottage cheese is also not considered a viable solution, as it is a unique product that is generally not manufactured outside Israel.

Company officials say they cannot provide an exact timeline for a full recovery but estimate that regular deliveries could resume within about two weeks, while it may take several additional weeks for supermarket shelves to be fully restocked.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)