Look closely, and you will find a very new set of Israeli exports floating over to her trading partners.

Sure: For many years, Israel was associated with great agricultural produce and photogenic politicians. Then came the era of hightech, as Intel’s chips are developed in the Holyland and Teva has become one of the globe’s largest generic drug manufacturers.

But the first decade of the new millennium has seen Israeli products become world leaders in many unexpected fields. Just look at the brief list below, based on news items collated over the past few days.

1. China’s home-electronics giant Haier Group will market Israeli water purification products. With 8,000 shops that should add up to a lot of Yuan changing hands.
2. MCO Industries in Rehovot has secured a US$50 million deal to sell solar water heaters in America.
3. And low tech does not get left off the list, as “Israeli falafel chain Falafel Ba’ribua (“square”) aims to follow in the footsteps of Max Brenner and Aroma cafés, and take New York City by storm”.
4. Staying with the food sector, Israeli startup MySupermarket, UK’s independent grocery shopping and comparison site, has completed a new round of investment of $7.4 million, led by Greylock and Pitango. British internet shoppers will be able to find out on the spot, which supermarket chain offers the best deals.
5. In Cleantech, Better Places is clearly one of the leading players in developing a non-fuel car.

Etc etc. A series of coincidences? Unlikely. At the end of this month, a large delegation from Korean companies will descend on Tel Aviv, looking for new technologies to purchase. Two of my clients expect to be there. The fields range from internet gaming to biomass.

Meanwhile, Korean steel giant POSCO has just become the 19th multinational to sign an R&D cooperation agreement with the Israeli government. So you could be purchasing something from Merck or Microsoft or Abbott or whoever, but its origins could have been in Jerusalem or Ariel or Eilat.

All amazing stuff. Time to calm down with a juicy piece of fruit….. from your local kibbutz of course.