Made in Germany Boom in Israel

German-made products currently enjoy unprecedented popularity among Israelis.

According to a study carried out by Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), increasing numbers of Israelis associate German products with quality and reliability. And German exports to Israel rose more than 5 percent last year.

The legacy of the Holocaust meant that for years Israelis were long reluctant to buy goods made in Germany, and there was a ban on German imports in the years following the Second World War.

“It was only the rise of a new generation that a slow rapprochement took place and sales increased,” explains Charme Rykower, Senior Executive of the German-Israeli Chamber of Industry & Commerce.

Now Israel imports 4.5 billion euros worth of goods from Germany, and German-made products are aggressively marketed as such. Rykower says there have even been cases of companies falsely advertising their products as being German in an attempt to boost sales.