Tara ( he, טרה) is an agricultural cooperative (co-op) in Israel specializing in milk and

dairy product Dairy products or milk products, also known as lacticinia, are food products made from (or containing) milk. The most common dairy animals are cow, water buffalo, nanny goat, and ewe. Dairy products include common grocery store food items in th ...

s. It is the second largest dairy processor after Tnuva.

History

Tara was created in 1942 by dairy farmers from the Tel Aviv neighbourhood of

Nahalat Yitzhak Nahalat Yitzhak is a neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel. Name Nahalat Yitzhak literally means "Yitzhak's Estate" in Hebrew. The neighborhood is named after Rabbi Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor, Chief Rabbi of Kovno, who wrote a book called Nachal Yitzc ...

and the surrounding area, in order to unite under one organization that would represent them with regard to the British mandatory authorities and concentrated purchasing of

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food g ...

rations as well as selling the agricultural produce. The name apparently was decided by the British clerk when the co-op representative came to register the firm did not have a name. A warehouse for fodder as well as a refrigeration room to keep milk on the

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

was built on a half-

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...

(500 m²) plot of land. The increase in productivity as well as quantities of milk provided a surplus that led the co-op to begin producing cream and

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

s. With the establishment of the State of Israel, a dairy department was created in the new Ministry of Agriculture, and with it new regulations with regard to production including required

pasteurization Pasteurization or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mild heat, usually to less than , to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life. The ...

, a standard 3.5% level of fat, and that dairy farmers work from concentrated areas and independently. This led to more dairy farmers to join from Giv'atayim,

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

, and

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of ...

as well as production expanding to hard cheeses. At the beginning of the 1960s, during the period that

Moshe Dayan Moshe Dayan ( he, משה דיין; 20 May 1915 – 16 October 1981) was an Israeli military leader and politician. As commander of the Jerusalem front in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1953–1958) du ...

was Minister of Agriculture, the government decided to change the zoning of the Nahalat Yitzhak neighbourhood from agricultural to urban-industrial. Subsequently, the local farmers were forced to move their enterprises elsewhere. The elimination of its main source of milk required Tara to purchase milk from new farmers as well as Tnuva. Until the late 1990s, Tara was still run by representatives of the original owners. In 1997, it was decided to hire 'professional' management. In 2004, the Central Bottling Company Ltd., the local licensee of Coca-Cola, purchased the company for $39 million. In 2006, Tara signed a licensing and know-how deal with

Müller Müller may refer to: * ''Die schöne Müllerin'' (1823) (sometimes referred to as ''Müllerlieder''; ''Müllerin'' is a female miller) is a song cycle with words by Wilhelm Müller and music by Franz Schubert * Doctor Müller, fictional character ...

of a European dairy product manufacturer based in Germany. As of 2006, Tara employs over 360 workers and produces about 135 million

liter The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). ...

s of milk yearly, which is about 450,000 liters of milk daily on average, with a market share of 10-13%. Estimated revenues in 2005 were 500 million NIS, with a loss of about $10 million. In August 2007, the ''Gilead Dairy'' owned by Tara, acquired ''Tzuriel Farm'' for under NIS 20 million. The 'Tzuriel Farm' dairy, specializing in hard-cheese, goat-

s, and other semi-firm cheeses was established in 1986 and since 1999 has operated a unique line of soy-based products.

History

See also