According to an internal memorandum Kashrus Lemehadrin --
Chakla'us Al Pi HaTorah sent to rabbonim and morei
horo'oh, this year's markets contain the highest
percentage of orloh fruits seen in several years.
For instance: the majority of blueberries sold this year is
orloh, one-tenth of the domestic peach crop is
orloh, 6 percent of apricots is orloh, cactus
fruits (sabras) are over 10 percent orloh, figs are
6.7 percent orloh, crembolla is 35 percent
orloh, and more.
This year a significant percentage orloh is also found
among types of fruits that have not raised orloh
concerns for years, such as grapes.
The situation is even worse regarding types of fruits that
grow on what the leading poskim say may really be
plants but should be considered trees due to uncertainty; for
example, 80 percent of papaya is orloh and 73 percent
of passion-flower is orloh.
HaRav Shabsai Markovitz of Kashrus Lemehadrin explains that
this year's large number of orloh fruits stems from
the fact during the shmittah year almost no saplings
were planted in orchards, partly due to the tough fight by
the Institute for Research on Torah-Based Agriculture to
prevent the land from being worked. As a result there was an
abundance of saplings planted the following year in 5762.
This summer these orchards are beginning to yield fruits, but
the fruits are orloh.
Kashrus Lemehadrin would like to bring these figures to the
public's attention as a warning to avoid buying fruits from
stores that lack a high standard kashrus supervision.
