Tesco and Israeli cherry tomatoes

Dee · April 13, 2007

I was pretty pissed off last week when Tesco only stocked cherry tomatoes from Israel

so I emailed them and they replied today! Not a satisfactory reply mind you, but at least they did - i had to ring Sale Sharks to hear anything from them

anyhow, I wrote to Tesco:

Dear Tesco,

Please can you explain your decision to stock Israeli cherry tomatoes in

your stores as opposed to homegrown British cherry tomatoes? The agriculture

industry in Britain is suffering by the actions of big corporations, like

Tesco, who continue to source their fruit and veg from global suppliers over

local British produce. Further to this I'd like to bring to your attention

the "Boycott Israeli Goods" campaign which seeks to boycott Israeli

products. These boycott campaigns will continue to grow until Israel

1. withdraws from the occupied areas,

2. respects human rights (including right of refugees to return to

their homes and lands),

3. and obeys International law.

Sincerely,

Dee

and they replied:

Thank you for your email.

Our customers want high quality products all year round and we aim to meet this demand. Our first choice is to source products from the UK. However, some products are not available out of season or cannot be grown in the UK so we need to look overseas. Suppliers must meet our requirements regarding good agricultural practice, have appropriate packaging facilities and meet our ethical standards. There are some products from Israel that meet these standards and provide excellent quality and value for customers. Such products are clearly labelled and, in line with our aim to provide the widest choice for customers, there are usually alternatives available from other countries.

We therefore intend to continue to stock products from Israel where they meet the criteria set out above and allow customers to make a personal choice. I am sorry if you are disappointed with our decision, but I hope you can understand why we have chosen not to remove Israeli products from our shelves.

Thank you for your comments

Tesco

Herbie von Smalls · April 13, 2007

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