Promoting agricultural exports to Israel The Middle Eastern nation of Israel, though small in size, is a highly lucrative market for Vietnamese agricultural exports with tremendous potential for growth.  Two-way trade turnover between Vietnam and Israel has steadily been accelerating over the past years. According to the Vietnam Trade Office (VTO) in Israel, the country principally exports agricultural products, garments and electronic equipment while it imports fertiliser, machinery, equipment and electronic parts from Israel. In the first six months of the year, Vietnam’s agricultural exports to Israel dipped 6% compared to the same period last year to US$45.7 million and accounted for 13% of the Vietnam’s total export revenues. Key market in Middle East The VTO in Israel said the decline in agricultural exports is largely attributable to the protracted and complicated political situation between Israel and Palestine. Vietnam Customs’ statistics reflect that agricultural exports to Israel for last year were US$100 million, comprising 27% of the country’s total exports to Israel. Major agricultural export products included seafood (US$42.4 million), coffee (US$25.9 million), cashew nuts (US$23.8 million), peppers (US$7.5 million), rice (US$5.9 million), rubber (US$3.2 million) and other products like vegetables and fruit, tea, cassava and sweet fennel (US$1 million). With a population of more than 8 million people, Israel is the most important consumer of Vietnamese coffee in the Middle East as it has many coffee processing enterprises to ship their products to regional markets as well as Europe and America. Last year, Vietnam’s coffee exports to the market accounted for 56% of total export value to Middle East. Israel is also an important market for Vietnamese cashew nuts with its value making up 30% of total export revenues to the Middle East. The country is also the third largest importer of seafood (around 20%), rice (16%) and rubber (7%) and the fourth largest importer of pepper (8%). The VTO in Israel reported that the country has high demand for importing agricultural products not only for domestic use but also for processing instant food for exports to the third countries. Prospects for agricultural cooperation Israel cannot grow the farm produce that Vietnam exports to it even though it has high demand for them, leading market analysts report. Once the political unrest and conflict in the region is dealt with effectively, Vietnam’s agricultural exports to the country will jump significantly. The key to the prospects for enhanced cooperation with Israel lies in the fact that it possesses advanced technologies, especially in agricultural production and due to restricted land and labour forces, the country cannot fully utilise the technology. This provides a great opportunity for the two nations to cooperate in agriculture, and Vietnam should encourage Israeli businesses to transfer technology and find outlet markets for agricultural products. Experts are optimistic that Vietnam and Israel have the potential for long-term sustainable agriculture cooperation to make full advantage of the opportunities and strategies, which stimulates stronger development. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has devised measures on market development with Israel, including agricultural and seafood demand at markets and export mechanisms and export facilitation policies. In addition, the ministry has actively worked to expand export markets with Israel for agricultural and seafood products by reducing tax, opening market and removing trade barriers through negotiations on Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (VEFTA). It has also enhanced opportunities for finding potential partners and markets for businesses and updating them with protectionism, trade barriers and trade lawsuits of import markets. VOV