Israeli-Croatian Economic Forum – Israelis Seek Quality and Are Willing to Pay for It

Croatia and Israel are friendly countries with excellent bilateral relations, and the previously modest cooperation is on the rise. After a slight decline in economic relations in 2017, the 35 percent increase in the first quarter of 2018 is encouraging, indicating that we are heading in the right direction, emphasized Ivan Barbarić, Vice President of the Croatian Chamber of Economy for International Affairs and the EU, at the Israeli-Croatian Economic Forum held in Tel Aviv as part of the visit of the Croatian economic delegation to Israel.

Barbarić highlighted that the greatest potential for cooperation exists in agriculture, the food and defense industries, energy, healthcare, and tourism.

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Gadi Arieli, Director of the Israeli Export Institute, emphasized that Israel has a strongly developed military industry, and past experiences have shown that cooperation that begins in this area always spills over into civilian industries.

– Europe is our main partner in overall trade, and that is why Croatia is important to us; we want our companies to open branches with you and thus become part of the unified European market, said Arieli.

Velimir Janković, head of Pozamanterija-MTČ, stated that they have been present in the Israeli market for over two years, praising Israelis as very reliable business partners.

– We specialize in technical textiles for military equipment. We have several partners we work with, and our goal is to find new ones and expand in this market, emphasized Janković.

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Denis Matijević from the company Marinada emphasized that they have been operating in Israel for five years.

– We primarily export compotes, and the Israeli market is very potent because customers love quality products that they are willing to pay adequately for, Matijević stated.

Darko Grbac, a member of the management board of Đuro Đaković Special Vehicles, emphasized that they are currently in talks with an Israeli company for the joint production of military vehicles for third markets.

The trade exchange between Croatia and Israel in 2017 amounted to 65.6 million euros, of which 51.3 million was Croatian exports, while only 14.2 million was imports from Israel. We primarily export petroleum oils, cement, railway locomotives, and medicines, while we import insecticides and pesticides, medicines, data storage devices, and printing inks.