Pages

Friday, August 02, 2019

Agricultural exports from Gaza going up, not that you would know that from the news

The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization puts out statistics each week on Gaza's exports of fruit, vegetables and fish to the rest of the world.

Here's where the exports this year have gone so far:


Jordan's imports of Gaza goods have gone down sharply, but Israel's and especially the GCC's imports have risen a great deal.

It appears that Israel and the Gulf are putting their money where their mouth is as far as helping the Gaza economy, although these are token amounts. The vast majority of Gaza exports go to the West Bank.



To the best of my knowledge, unless something has changed since I last spoke to Israeli officials about this, there are no restrictions on Gaza exports outside the number of willing buyers.



In the past, and perhaps now as well, the IDF's COGAT unit would provide seeds and expertise to Gaza and West Bank farmers to grow new crops and improve their quality.

Another new thing is that Gaza now exports fish. From reading the news one gets the impression that Gaza fishermen can't even provide enough fish for local consumption, but in fact they are sending hundreds of metric tons of fish to the West Bank.



Something else that the news media won't bother to report.





We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.