N.j. Gov. Florio Visits Israel to Promote Trade Between States

This week’s visit by New Jersey Governor Jim Florio and an 80-person trade delegation from the Garden State has already reaped some positive results.

In the country to promote business ties between their state and Israel, the participants have met with dozens of Israeli professionals in fields ranging from tourism and business to agriculture and education.

During their five-day visit, which was sponsored by the New Jersey-Israel Commission, the participants visited many of the country’s top companies and research facilities to get a taste of Israeli ingenuity.

In 1991, Israel ranked as New Jersey’s fifth most important trading partner. New Jersey exported $488 million in products to Israel last year – 4.5 percent of New Jersey’s total world exports in 1991.

“Our visit here has been extremely positive,” said Florio on Wednesday, following a visit to Elscint, one of the world’s leading medical technology firms.

The company, which already has a highly successful marketing subsidiary in Hackensack, N.J., would like to increase its sales in the United States, said Florio, “and we have every intention of helping them. New Jersey is a high-tech leader itself, and we have the business know-how to help companies grow,” he said.

Another area of potential growth is the tourism industry, said Florio, who on Monday signed a tourism agreement with Eli Gonen, director general of the Israel Ministry of Tourism. Some 15,000 New Jersey residents visited Israel last year – a number Israeli tourism officials would like to double.

The agreement calls for both places to develop special “tourism weeks” to promote bilateral travel, expand publicity and sponsor special tours for travel agents to become acquainted with the two vacation sites.

Perhaps the most successful venture to come out of the visit is a joint project to improve New Jersey’s tomatoes.

The goal of the project, which calls for cooperation between Garden State agricultural representatives and Israeli plant breeders, is to produce a more marketable, less perishable New Jersey tomato.

The venture will unite experts from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, a consortium of New Jersey food marketing firms, and the Volcani Center, Israel’s premier agricultural research facility.

“We have the best tomatoes in the world,” New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Art Brown said after the agreement was signed at the Volcani Center, a sprawling complex near Tel Aviv. “This project will make them even better.”

Both parties hope to gain from the project, which will cost about $70,000 per year. By taking New Jersey’s tomato and breeding it with longer-lasting varieties produced in Israel, Volcani researchers hope to create the perfect hybrid. The seeds that result will then be commercially manufactured on a large- scale basis. Both sides will receive royalties from the seeds, and New Jersey will be able to sell its produce throughout the United States.

“This type of venture is very good for Israel because it utilizes what we know in a practical way,” said Dr. Meir Pilowsky, head of the center’s Department of Planned Genetics. “This way, both sides benefit.”

When asked whether improving others’ fruits or vegetables might compete with Israel’s own produce industry, Pilowsky replied that “new techniques cannot be kept in a bottle forever. For the first few years after a new discovery, it is usually wise to use the knowledge locally. But at a certain point, everyone benefits from sharing knowledge.

“After all,” Pilowsky said, “Israel is just a small country, and we can’t feed the whole world. There is enough room in the tomato business for everyone.”