A report of the agricultural export industry in Israel has been published regarding 2015, and the results are not encouraging. The report, prepared by the Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry, shows that exports of agricultural produce from Israel to the European Union dropped by 18% last year; exports to the EU totaled 764 million dollars in 2015 compared with some 931 million dollars in 2014. The largest drops in export from Israel among EU countries were in The Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, where exports dropped by 25%, 22%, and 20%, respectively.
The primary reasons cited in the report for the decrease in exports to the EU are the flooding of the European markets with local produce and the sharp decline of the euro. Following the closing of the Russian market for produce from Europe, much of the local produce remained in the EU markets which made it difficult for Israeli exporters to compete.
Additionally, the declining strength of the euro made exports from Israel less profitable and in some cases not worth the costs.
A large drop in exports to Russia is also mentioned in the report; exports of agricultural products to the Russian market totaled 240 million dollars in 2015, a 25% decrease from the previous year. Russia accounted for nearly 18% of the overall agricultural export from Israel last year, but the crash of the ruble and the general economic condition in the country led to much lower levels of exports then in years past.
Despite the difficult year, stakeholders in Israel are not signaling any sort of crisis yet. "It appears that since 2013 Israeli export has flat-lined" said Ohad Cohen, head of the trade department in the Ministry of Economy, "we have put together a series of policies to make the situation easier for exporters and there is still work to be done. However, in the case of the export to the EU, the difficulty comes mainly from external factors like the weak euro and not from supply and demand issues."
