Northern canned food factory faces closure, again

One of Israel’s largest canned food factories locked its gates on Thursday morning and sent 220 workers on a forced vacation after management said it was unable to pay for a business permit to keep the facility open.

Workers from the Pri Hagalil factory in Hatzor Haglilit in northern Israel planned to demonstrate in front of the gates in protest of the closure.

Factory manager Oshik Efraim said the root of the problem was a failure by the Economy Ministry to transfer all of a NIS 9 million ($2.31 million) grant agreed on in 2009 to keep the struggling company open.

According to Efraim only half of the money has been handed over, and the rest, which was due in February 2014, has been held up.

“The Economy Ministry broke the agreement that it had with us,” Ephraim told the Walla news website. “Because the ministry didn’t transfer the full amount that it committed to, we stopped investing in components that we need to renew our business license for 2015.

“At the moment we don’t have a business license for the new year and so we were forced to close the factory gates.”

Without the extra funding, the factory was unable to complete environmental protection and fire safety improvements that it needed in order to get the permit.

The Economy Ministry said in a statement that a financial evaluation of the grant given to the factory uncovered problems that “require a legal assessment,” Channel 2 reported.

“Until the examination is complete the transfers have been frozen,” the ministry explained and warned that it intends to hold the factory management to task for the manner in which it handled the funds it has received so far.

In February 2012 workers arrived at the factory to find the gates locked as management threatened to close down the site. The factory reopened several days later after the government promised to transfer more funding.

The Pri Hagalil factory was founded in 1951 and is one of the largest employers in northern Israel.