Malta emerged as the country with the fastest growth in receiving exports from Israel during the first half, The Israel Exports Institute said Sunday. With an increase of 156% to around $36 million, Malta was comfortably ahead of second placed Gibraltar, which saw a rise of 108% in the value of the goods it imported from Israel to $42m. In cash terms, the US remained the largest recipient of Israeli goods and merchandise - with some $3.5 billion of stock sent to America during the first half. This represented a rise of 22% over the comparable period last year. On a negative note, Malaysia's imports from Israel were down 54% during the period to $32m. Other countries that imported less from Israel were Ireland, Costa Rica, Slovenia, Kenya and Sweden, which saw respective declines of 31%, 35%, 53%, 25% and 25%.