Anyone think there is a market for Israeli produce in Taiwan? Things like Dead Sea salt & related products, dates & date syrup, olive oil, wine, etc.
What about the reverse - anyone here sell retail products from Taiwan at wholesale prices?
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It will not be easyā¦
Dead sea products had a boom a couple of years ago, with a lot of pushy sales people in shopping malls. some of the companies are still here. There are a few other cosmetics
Carrefour used to carry Israeli sea salt before, but that one is also gone.
There is one importer of Israeli wines, but the volume is small, you wont see them in major stores.
For dates/date syrup - i dont think there will be much demand. They are not part of the local cuisine and are quite niche
Olive oil - widely available form other countries, so the competition will be on price.
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I havenāt seen any Israeli produce in Taiwan but they sure have Israeli fertilizers and various explosive precursorā¦
Israel also helped Taiwan develop various weapon systemsā¦
I think arms is actually one of Israelās primary exportā¦ not produce and stuff.
As for wine/dates/oil, again there are a lot of other countries that makes it in bigger quantities and qualities than Israel. Italy for exampleā¦
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Any apricots or figs?
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Dates are imported for those walnut date cake thingies. I think the quality doesnāt matter a lot for those, as they add sugar and blitz them all up and flatten them into squares. In the past some of the dates I have bought here have been quite old, the skins all dried up and flaking off. The best Iāve had here are āKhoudryā dates from Carrefour.
Would love to see some competition for whatās here though. But whether customs decides to make it easy or hard for you is another debate. In my opinion, there seem to be some cosy little arrangements, might be hard to break in.
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There maybe some interest for Israeli produced missile defence systems 
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Thank you for your advice Izzy.
It is good to see some of our products have made it halfway across the world to you 
I can ask around. I asked about dates because one of my friends owns a date farm and another sells boutique wines.
Or fighter pilot training.
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Iāve seen stuffed dates at some of the traditional tea houses* around Taipei (*of the actual tea drinking variety, not the ones for members of the Lions Club)
(I will clarify and say those are places with very limited food menus because the focus is on the tea. Like vegetarian dumplings, some sort of cakes, and stuffed dates as the only food on the menu)
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It would be great if Israeli couscous or bulgur got more popular here, itās quite rare and often too overpriced. 
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I see them regularly in Carrefour (Taipei Zhishan store), not Israeli though, a brand called Sadaf.
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I saw them in Carrefour Xindian recently, but it was about 300 ntd for 250 grams (I donāt know if it was the same brand). :C Maybe I just find them overpriced because in my home country it is about 100 ntd for the same bag.
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Same hereā¦ its driven by supply & demand.
Cheese in my home country is cheap, but tofu is expensiveā¦
couscous is just not part of the local eating cultureā¦ its not rice and not noodles, so the average person doesnt know what to do with it.
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Plus couscous is dirt cheap from Africa (routed through france) here. If it becomes popular taiwanese like to take it and produce it themselves for a bigger markup.
I could see oil, figs and a few things being popular. But the issue is distribution this side. Means big scale, big money.
There are numerous local specialties that can be exported wholesale. Lots.
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thats usually the case, many people only one side the equation, this guy has access to dates, but what he really needs is access to carrefour and px mart to put it on their shelves.
and vice versa, i might have access to great guavas or what not, but need a way to get them into Aldiās.
Guavas here are so cheap now that many farmers have started to just let them rot . Cheaper than the labor alone.
Dates are good, but you need to find big distributors to take on that. And that means CHEAP unfortunately. Carrefour alone isnt big enough, they buy from agents a lot of the time to limit personal risk. Meaning the agents need more markets to supply. If you can supply 10 containers a month but also be cool with 1 a year, thats where taiwan sitsā¦hence why many players just skip taiwan 
non perishables or common commodities are the norm here.
Nice one. I have only seen their house brand in our Carrefour.
So if agents are already doing this ,how do you plan to break into the already fairly small market? Dont want to discourage you. But its not as cheap, or easy, as people may think. And yet it is always simple. Provide better quality, service, speed and priceā¦they will listen to a sales pitch.
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I like the Carrefour house brand and good price NT$69, a good alternative to rice for a change and more protein.
I would like to see āKafe Shachorā (āblack coffeeā) or mud coffee
I donāt think thatās Israeli couscous (i.e. the small balls), is it? I only recall seeing ānormalā couscous here - no whole-wheat, no Israeli, no pearl couscous (until a few minutes ago I thought Israeli and pearl were synonymous, but apparently thatās untrue).