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Unrest in a Coop store in the canton of Friborg. The brand sold avocados from Israel, even though the origin statement on the label said the fruit came from Morocco. As many consumers want to know where their food comes from, given the current situation in the Middle East, others will see red if they are offered Israeli avocados under the guise of another nationality.
This was particularly the case with the pro-Palestinian collective fribourg_palestine, which did not hesitate to denounce the incident in a video posted on Instagram on Thursday, December 21: “Shame on Coop for deceiving the consumer,” the association writes in the description of the said video. Their actions are part of an international Palestinian civil society movement called BDS, an acronym for “Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions,” against Israel.
When asked, the Coop assured that it was a human error. Although the avocados come from Israel, there is no intention to mislead the consumer. To avoid further incidents, the brand has instructed all branches in French-speaking Switzerland to “check whether the origin is correctly stated,” emphasizes Giovanni Iacomini, communications manager at Coop. In addition, the man states that an inspection was carried out at various points of sale on Tuesday and the origin was correctly stated. So this is an isolated case.
Department stores make mistakes
This is not the first time that the labeling of a product has caused a stir among consumers. In 2021, Coop removed mention of a Spanish exporter of French strawberries after numerous customers complained about their true origin.
The competitor Migros is no exception. In September, a customer was surprised when paying for his cucumber from Spain when the words “Switzerland, local” appeared on the screen.
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