The Italian Coalition Against Carmel-Agrexco announced Saturday that two major Italian supermarket chains, COOP and Nordiconad, said they would suspend the sale of products from a settlement good exporter.
Products from Agrexco, what the coalition calls a "principal exporter of produce from Israel and the illegal Israeli settlements" will be cleared from stores by the end of the month, the director of Nordiconad told the coalition.
Major grocery chain COOP Italia went further, a statement said, and cited a quality assurance officer as saying a "problem with traceability, namely that the consumer is unable to verify whether or not the product in question comes from the occupied territories," was leading the mega stores to "suspend the supply of products from the occupied territories."
Organizers said the Italian supermarket lobbying campaign was launched in January of 2010, with coordination from groups in France and other European nations.
In their statement, the Stop Agrexco coalition said it had "vowed to make sure that both chains follow through on their promises," and offered assistance to other groups seeking similar action.
The campaign comes as Palestinian Authority officials are pushing through their own mandatory boycott of settlement products, with President Mahmoud Abbas declaring his home "settlement good free" on Saturday afternoon.
Front Page Features