Almost similar in fashion and fit to European markets, small but full of potential, Israel imported apparels worth US $ 1,359 million from across the world in 2012 and out of them garments worth US $ 30 million came from India. To give bigger thrust to exports from India, a two-day Buyer Seller Meet (BSM) was organized in Tel Aviv (Israel) recently which attracted 275 buyers, and interestingly, 32 buyers were from Palestine. The BSM also helped to explore the US $ 11 billion apparel market of the Middle East region. Small orders, price-competitiveness and fondness for Indian products are the key selling points for this market.
At the BSM, a few companies were exploring Israel for the first time and interaction with Israeli buyers was a good experience for them. One such company Fashionite Impex, Delhi will be sending its first shipment within a month. “We got very enthusiastic response at the event and almost 35 buyers interacted with us in an effective way and I realized that it is an untouched market for Indian products and buyers are not that price-conscious. There is demand for high value as well as basic products and if someone is doing Europe, Israel is not a difficult ball game for him as it follows Europe in fashion as well as sizing,” says Ramnik Chawla, Director, Fashionite Impex. The company has average FOBs ranging from US $ 20-100.
There are other export houses doing business with Israel for many years and they have a different opinion. Kirti M Shah of KM Creations, Mumbai who has been working in the market for the last seven years, mostly catering to the stores, is facing tough competition and is not very satisfied with the market.
“The trade is dominated by Jews who are very strong in business and very particular over the price. In last three years few European stores have opened up in Israel and are giving tough competition to the local stores, also in the last one or two years the market has been impacted by recession so it will take some time to grow.
There is potential, but you have to be price-competitive,” says Shah. He also adds that BSM has just 14 participants, if the participant could have more, it could be more attractive for buyers and more beneficial for participants also.
[bleft]Israel buyers and people are more attracted towards India in comparison to China and they also like Indian products; if one can match the pricing, enough orders are there.[/bleft]
Most of the Israeli buyers offer small orders but there are some importers whose order sizes are reasonably large. Few participants of the BSM accept that even after the price-competitiveness, small orders size do offer good prices depending on the buyer. S. Jothimanikandan, Director of the Tirupur Pandit Hosiery Mills and who approached this market for the first time on the suggestion of some European buyers was very satisfied. “We got 30 enquiries and most of them were asking for small orders, few offered good price so it makes good sense for us,” he says. Another company from Tirupur, Newsun Innovaation, is working in this market from the last three years and sends almost six shipments every year. “Some importers can offer you orders of 25,000 pieces also which is really big seeing to the Israeli market, but if the order is big, price or the margin will be very low,” informs K.S. Mohana Sundaram, Director of the company.
Anand Bahl, Director, East & West Handicraft Enterprise, Mumbai is servicing the Israeli market in a good way and he is positive about the overall scenario and systems of the market. “Apart from being similar to European market, the Israeli market has one more edge that most of the buyers work on LCs so even though being a small market it is worth exploring,” he says. The company is working there with departments stores. There are some small issues, especially for the new players which one may have to face like custom and visa formalities are hard to navigate in Israel so one has to prepare well in advance for success.
