Israel’s food industry is one of the most competitive sectors in the country’s economy. It contributes 20 percent of the total local industry revenues and its workforce consists of over 60,000 employees.
The environment is dynamic due to the changing demands and tastes of customers. It consists of small and medium-sized businesses as well as large multinational companies. This industry is currently facing a number of challenges because the pandemic has brought about an unplanned shift in the world economy.
The agribusiness sector
The agribusiness sector is well-developed and consists of food producers and processors, wholesalers and retailers, as well as food service operators and food importers.
Israel grows a wide range of crops due to the diverse land and climate countrywide. The crops include corn, wheat and sorghum. In monetary terms, it produces about 70 percent of its food requirement.
Israeli is not self-sufficient in agriculture due to limited land and water resources. It does have to import food from other countries, such as the United States. It imports large volumes of food grains and coffee, sugar, meat, fish and oilseeds. These imports are partially offset by the fresh agricultural products and processed foods it exports.
The food processing sector
The food processing sector is an important part of Israel’s economy. Through research and development, Israeli food companies have developed innovative products that are exported worldwide. Health awareness has driven the development of organic, sugar-free, meatless and other specialty foods.
The food sector uses advanced working methods and has good global marketing networks and effective partnerships. Multinational food manufacturers partner with well-known local food companies. Four groups that dominate the local food processing industry are Unilever, Osem-Nestlé, Strauss and Tnuva.
With its growing population and limited land, the ingredients the food processing sector needs presents a great opportunity for the U.S. to export food ingredients. In 2017 Israel imported raw ingredients worth nearly three billion for the food processing industry.
The Israeli workforce
Only about 8 percent of the workforce is employed in the globally competitive, knowledge-based technology sector. The rest of the workforce is mostly employed in manufacturing and services where global competition forces downward wage pressures. In 2020, only 0.9 percent of employees in Israel were active in the agricultural sector, according to Statista. In comparison, 10.9 percent of the total U.S. workforce was employed in the agricultural and food sectors.
Household food expenditure
Israel’s household food expenditure is about 16.9 percent of household expenditure. In comparison, U.S. expenditure on food amounts to about 13 percent of the household budget on average. For coverage of food-industry related essay topics,
WritingBros offers free essay resources on coverage of food industry-related essay topics. For example, topics may include the gaps between the lowest and highest income groups in terms of expenditure on food. Interestingly, Israel’s expenditure on education is very high in relation to the GDP but expenditure per student is below the OECD average. Students wanting to improve their essay writing can benefit from free essay examples written by professional writers.
Israel spends the equivalent of about six percent of its GDP on education. This includes all types of education, from primary school through to tertiary education for students at colleges and universities.
Kosher certification
Kosher certification isn’t a legal requirement for importing food into Israel, except for meat and meat products. However, non-kosher products have a smaller market share, as many hotels and supermarkets won’t carry them. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has to approve a product as kosher or authorize a supervisory body to act for him. The kashrut certification issued by U.S. rabbis is recognized.
More self-sustainability
With the Covid-19 pandemic, countries were closing their borders and this raised the question of what would happen to supply chains in the food industry. Would Israel be able to sustain itself with more isolationism in the global economy?
Currently, farmers feel the pressure of competing with imported products. There are cases where local farmers have to stop harvesting crops because of excess imports of these crops from other countries. Israel does have high import levies on commodities and products like wine, dairy and apples because they compete with local industry.
A final word
The food industry in Israel is a dynamic and competitive sector of its economy. There is a rich, ethnic cuisine and it produces high-quality ingredients and gourmet foods. The country has a reputation for fine wine and innovative, nutritious processed foods. It is able to produce most of what it requires but it is not entirely self-sufficient. A focus on food security on a local scale would help to encourage sustainability.
Author’s Bio:
Vendy Adams works in the academic industry as a course designer for college-level students and as a research paper writer for an online writing agency. Her talent is vast and she likes to do multitasking to achieve the bigger goals she has set for herself. Recently, she has also started authoring books and plans to sell them online.
