Israel Active

Israeli wineries won four gold medals and five silver at the international Mundus Vini Competition in Dusseldorf, Germany, which featured over 5000 global wines.  Galil Mountain Alon 2012 won the prestigious Grand Gold medal.

US technology giant Motorola Solutions is to establish an innovation center in Israel focusing on cyber, analytics, mobile and the Internet of Things.  Motorola said its Israeli branch is "a strategic asset”.  In the 1970's Motorola’s first center outside North America was in Israel.

Flights at the new Ramon International Airport in Timna, 10km north of Eilat, are expected to begin taking off in 2017.  The airport is named after Ilan Ramon - Israel’s first astronaut and his son Assaf and will initially handle two million passengers a year.

Israeli start-up PocketCause has developed a digital platform to encourage young smartphone users to donate to non-profit organizations.  Users follow or like a social cause on Facebook and can send messages and donations, through the app, directly to the organization.  

International giant Bayer has made a $10 million investment in a new fund that Israel’s Trendlines has set up to support Israeli agro-tech start-ups.  In the five-year deal, Bayer will work with Israeli firms developing bio-pesticides, packaging, and crop and animal breeding technologies

A Hub Etzion Launch Party was held at the first co-working space in Gush Etzion. The hub will utilize working space and offer shared resources to startups.

Israel exports 30,000 tons of Medjool dates each year - between 65% and 75% of all Medjool dates exported globally.  Most are grown in the Arava and Jordan valley.  The Medjool date is becoming more popular due to its superior quality to other varieties.

Low-cost airline Wizz Air will operate a new flight route from Riga, Latvia, to Tel Aviv from 20th June on Mondays and Fridays. WizzAir already flies to Tel Aviv from Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw, Katowice, Prague, Sofia, Vilnius and Lviv.

Israel’s foreign exchange reserves leapt by a record $4 billion in March to $94.775 billion. It includes $9.3 billion in the fund bought under the natural gas purchase program.

At the end of 2015, the average monthly salary in Israel was NIS 9,591 (approx. $2,500) up 2.3% from the end of 2014.