Vietnam-Israel trade reached over 790 million USD in the first nine months of 219, with Vietnam’s export revenue of about 410 million USD, according to the Vietnam Trade Office in Israel.

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Trade Councellor Le Thai Hoa said that Vietnam and Israel have supplementary demands in imports and exports. Many Israeli firms are keen on directly importing food, foodstuff, beverage, 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 22.3 percent year on year, while that of aquatic products dropped 32.2 percent as Israel has been strengthening food safety regulations on imported foodstuff since the end of 2018.

Decline was also seen in a number of Vietnamese exports such as garment and textile at 5.6 percent, coffee at 4 percent, and cashew at 3.7 percent.

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 670 million USD, while the country’s imports were about 215 million USD.

He predicted that for the whole year, the figures may reach over 800 million USD and about 260 million USD, respectively, thus raising trade between the two countries to over 1 billion USD.

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.