Trade Councellor Le Thai Hoa said that Vietnam and Israel have supplementary demands in imports and exports. Many Israeli firms are keen to directly import food, foodstuff, beverages, garments and footwear from Vietnam, he noted.
Hoa said that in the first nine months of 2019, Vietnam’s export of footwear to Israel continued to expand by 22.3% year-on-year, while that of aquatic products dropped 32.2% as Israel has been strengthening food safety regulations on imported foodstuff since the end of 2018.
A decline was also seen in a number of other Vietnamese exports, such as garments and textiles at 5.6%, coffee at 4%, and cashew at 3.7%.
However, Vietnamese rice continued to take a stable market share in Israel, noted Hoa, who said that in the first 10 months of 2019, Vietnam’s export revenue in the Israeli market was estimated at more than US$ 670 million, while the country’s imports were at about US$215 million.
He predicted that for the whole year, the figures may reach over US$800 million and about US$260 million, respectively, thus raising trade between the two countries to over US$1 billion.
According to the office, many local firms show interest in partnering with their Vietnamese peers in investment, startup, science and technology application in production, cybersecurity, telecommunications and IT, fintech, agriculture, and labour.
At the same time, various Israeli firms also want to build factories in Vietnam to produce consumer goods.
