Israeli trade winds blowing in American Midwest

Ask the average Israeli where he or she has visited in the United States, and you’ll likely get New York, Los Angeles, or Washington, DC. But that’s beginning to change. According to Guy Cohen, Israel’s consul for economic affairs to the Midwest, substantial economic collaborations are emerging between the American heartland and the State of Israel.

In March, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon led a delegation of state officials on a trade mission to Israel. The visit was focused on strengthening partnerships, increasing exports, and recruiting new high-tech foreign investment to the “Show Me State.” This week, from Missouri’s neighbor of Kansas, Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer joins a handful of other regional governors on a similar trade mission. 

“It sometimes kind of surprises people,” Colyer told JNS.org regarding his state’s ties with the Jewish state. “Israel is an important business relationship for us. A lot of things are happening here.”

In 2015, Kansas exported around $75 million worth of goods to Israel, according to Colyer, and imported more than $80 million, according to the International Trade Administration. Missouri imported more than $161 million from Israel, Iowa just more than $91 million, and Indiana around $109 million.

Consul Cohen explained that Midwest states are rarely home to the huge high-tech companies, such as Google, that will harness Israeli startup technologies in the products they sell or even acquire the Israeli start-ups (like Google acquired the Waze navigation app). Rather, Midwest companies tend to use Israeli technologies to help them run their own businesses—for internal use. The top industry in the Midwest tends to be agriculture, but there are niche markets in nearly each of the 13 states that Cohen covers: in Michigan, it’s automotive; in Indiana (particularly the city of Indianapolis), cyber-security; in North Dakota, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); in Kansas (particularly the city of Wichita), aerospace; among others.