Mehadrin mislabels products from illegal settlements to avoid boycott
Mehadrin boxes labelled ‘Produce of Israel’ in the Beqa’ot settlement in the occupied Jordan Valley
Mehadrin: New evidence of mislabelled settlement produce
By Therezia Cooper, Corporate Watch
January 22, 2013
On February 9th a coalition of civil society groups have called for an international day of action against Israeli agricultural companies in line with the movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli militarism, apartheid and colonisation. Corporate Watch researchers are in Palestine collecting new information and over the coming weeks Corporate Watch will be writing a series of articles and blogs examining Israeli agricultural exports.
Two and a half years ago Corporate Watch visited the illegal Israeli settlement Beqa’ot in the Jordan Valley, where we found packing houses belonging to the agricultural exporter Mehadrin Tnuport Export Company (MTEX). The produce being prepared for export was mislabeled as ‘produce of Israel’ despite being from the occupied West Bank. As we exposed at the time, Mehadrin produce is sold through Tesco stores in the UK. Last week we made another visit to the settlement to find out whether recent developments in UK and Israel has had an effect on the conduct of the company.
In the last two years two significant changes affecting Israeli agricultural exports have occurred: the collapse and formal liquidation of Israel’s national fruit and vegetable exporter Carmel Agrexco, and the decision of the UK supermarket Co-op to stop dealing with Israeli companies that operate in illegal settlements, including Mehadrin. The Co-op also stopped trading with Agrexco, Arava Export Growers and Adafresh.
Label for Medjoul dates produced in Beqa’ot settlement in the Jordan Valley
Whilst the liquidation of Agrexco was a big success for the BDS movement, it has meant that the export market for Israeli produce has opened up to competition and so far it appears that Mehadrin, one of Agrexco’s main competitors, has benefited the most. The company’s 2011 annual report stated that Mehadrin expected to expand and also confirmed that it had signed contracts with some of Agrexco’s citrus, avocado, persimmon and date growers. In August 2012 it was reported in the agricultural trade press that Mehadrin is now the biggest Israeli exporter of Medjoul dates, a growing market in the UK particularly over the Christmas and Ramadan periods.
Still mislabelling
A visit to Beqa’ot quickly showed that Mehadrin is still deliberately mislabeling the produce exported from there. The building storing Mehadrin packaging was filled to the roof with boxes stating that the content was the ‘produce of Israel’ instead of the West Bank. This was also the case for STM ltd, an agricultural exporter partly owned by Mehadrin.
According to the Mehadrin website the company has developed “one of the world’s most advanced traceability systems which provides for transparency and accountability”. However, proof from the ground shows that the opposite is true.
Mislabelled STM agricultural export boxes in Beqa’ot settlement in the occupied Jordan Valley
Mehadrin’s packing boxes in Beqa’ot were labelled as coming from Be’erot Yitzhaq, a small religious kibbutz near the Gaza border.
When Co-op adopted their policy of not working with companies which operate in the settlement in April 2012, it stressed that this move does not constitute a boycott of Israeli goods but that its contracts will go to other companies inside Israel that can guarantee they don’t export from illegal settlements. At the moment, there appears to be no way of guaranteeing this, as there is evidence of mislabelling of agricultural goods in all bigger settlements in the occupied Jordan Valley, and it is likely that the produce gets moved from growers in the valley to packing houses inside Israel. As a result the only way forward is a full boycott of all Israeli agricultural goods.
According to DEFRA advice regarding the labelling of settlement produce, published in December 2009 ‘the Government considers that traders would be misleading consumers, and would therefore almost be certainly committing an offence, if they were to declare produce from the OPT (including from the West Bank) as ‘Produce of Israel’ .
The mislabelling issue should also be a concern for stores such as Tesco. The chain still trades with Mehadrin and is, according to recent email confirmation, is the sole stockist of the company’s Jaffa brand in the UK. They have not adopted a policy of not selling settlement goods yet and, by ignoring the deceptive behaviour of companies it works with, it is complicit in their offences.
As Mehadrin’s export sales are growing (see here, Dun’s 100, Israel’s Largest Enterprises), now is the time for an international boycott effort.
Mehadrin operate in numerous countries. A full list of contacts can be found on their website www.mehadrin.co.il
Mehadrin’ contact address in the UK is:
3 Pentacourt,
Station Road, Borehamwood,
WD6 1SL. UK.
Website: www.jaffa.co.uk
Phone:+44 (0) 203 114 3030
Fax: +44 (0) 203 114 3040,
e-mail: info@mtexuk.com
Holland:
Handelscentrum ZHZ 40C
2991 LD Barendrecht
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 (0)180 642 570
Fax: +31 (0)180 642 571
Email: sales@mtex.nl
France: Mehadrin International
696 chemin du Barret
13160 Chateurenard
Tel : +33 (0)4 32 60 62 90
Fax : +33 (0)4 90 24 82 54
Mehadrin Scandinavia:
Mehadrin Tnuport Scandinavia AB
Västra Hamngatan 13 A
411 17 Göteborg
Sweden
Phone +46 (0)31 134932
Fax +46 (0)31 135764
e-mail (first name)@mtscand.com
Mehadrin Central Europe
Mehadrin Central Europe
Untergrundstr. 78
4601 Olten
Phone: +41 (0) 62 207 54 54
Fax: +41 (0) 62 207 54 61
Email: info@mehadrin-ce.ch
USA:
955 East Hazelwood Avenue,
Rahway, New Jersey 07065
Tel: 732-882-6964
Tel: 732-882-1000
Fax: 732-882-1001
Email: team@mehadrin-usa.com
Previous Corporate Watch article on Mehadrin
Jordan Valley: threat of imminent demolition hangs over the village of Al Hadidiya
By Ben Lorber, International Solidarity Movement/Occupied Palestine
Deceember 07, 2011
Before the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Al Hadidiya, near the Jordan Valley villages of Tubas and Jiftlik, was inhabited by over 100 families. Today, only 14 families remain. Since 1967, the village has been demolished four times, and over 3000 dunums of land, necessary for shepherding and grazing of animals, has been stolen by the nearby settlements of Ro’I and Beqa’ot.
On November 10, the community received nine new demolition orders that target 17 structures and will affect 72 people. As lawyers struggle to legally postpone or annul the orders, the people of Al Hadidiya wait in uncertainty and fear.
Abu Sacher is a shepherd whose makeshift tents are slated for demolition. Before 1967, the year of the first demolition of Al-Hadidiye, he, like all other villagers, lived in a sprawling stone house. “Do the Americans, the French or the British,” he protested, “think that the children in Palestine and the children in their countries are equally valuable? Do they want to live under occupation? America was under British occupation and they didn’t like that!”
Most villagers have relocated to nearby villages such as Tubas, Jiftlik, or Nablus. Others, however, like Abu Sacher, whose home has been demolished six times, remain steadfast on their land. “I will not leave my home”, he says. “Even if the entire population of America comes and settles here, I will still be here!”
In June 2011, Israeli military carried out two sets of demolitions in Al-Hadidiya, demolishing, according to the figures of Stop the Wall, 33 structures, leaving 37 residents without homes, and undermining the livelihood of a further 15.
A week after the November demolition orders inspired the Stop the Wall campaign to spearhead a letter-writing campaign, diplomats from 7 European representative offices visited Al Hadidiya to show solidarity. On November 17, a day before the scheduled demolition, Al Hadidiya’s legal defense team entered court to ask permission for the construction of homes. The Palestinian-owned land of Al-Hadidiya has since 1970 been declared an Israeli Area C military zone, despite the absence of any noticeable military activity.
As a consequence of policies designed to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian Bedouin from Area C of the Jordan Valley, the people of Al Hadidiya lack direct access to education, health care, electricity and water resources. Because villagers are barred from digging water wells or using the Mekorot water pipes that run under their feet, they cannot pursue their traditional agricultural lifestyle and must rear animals, a task made more difficult as more dunums of grazing land are stolen by settlements. “My family were peasants”, living off the land in a stone house, explains Abu Sacher, “but we have been made to live like Bedouin”, dwelling in tents as shepherds.
The nearby settlements of Ro’I and Beqa’ot, on the other hand, enjoy an abundance of land and water, government subsidies, high-tech methods, and European markets for their agricultural industry.