Are they from Israel or from South Africa? What is Woolworths’ rationale for labelling the same pomegranates as produce from both countries?
The first photo shows the display with two labels – one at the top of the box, and one at the bottom:
This next photo is of the same box. Here you can see the label at the bottom saying that the pomegranates are South African produce:
Yet the label at the top of the box (still the same one with the same fruit) shows that the pomegranates are from Israel:
A concerned citizen took these photos in Sandton City’s Woolworths. It is a large store situated in an affluent suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa’s financial capital.
What are we to make of this? Is it yet another example of how we cannot trust Woolworths to tell (and live) the truth?
The thing is, it is not the only example of false or incorrect labelling by Woolworths of their produce sourced from Israel. BDS South Africa issued a press statement on 29 October 2015 in which they say that South Africa’s National Consumer Commission (NCC) has launched an investigation into Woolworths over allegations of false Israeli labelling.
If anyone is aware of other examples related to Woolworths’ labelling you are welcome to share the full details with the BDS office at alerts@bdssouthafrica.com.
marthiemombergblog 
Thank you Marthie for sharing this with us. In the Netherlands Israelian products often do not carry the barcode 729 anymore but changed now into 871, which is the barcode of the Netherlands, if in doubt don’t buy!!!! We have complained to the Dutch authorities about this…..
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Sounds suspect! Yesterday I bought from Woollies for the first time since the boycott started (sorry – a week in the mountains without refrigeration required fresh produce that would keep, and unfortunately Woollies is still the only supplier of that level of quality! 🙂 ). When I had my packet of loose ‘exotic tomatoes’ weighed at the till point, it came up on the screen as Israeli tomatoes. I insisted on finding out whether it was produced locally or in Israel, and was eventually told it was produced locally. Any confirmation that that is so? Why call them Israeli tomatoes, then?
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Israeli tomatoes are a type of tomato, it’s a local product.
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It’s called Israeli because they are stubborn, nothing affects them
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remember ALL iseaeli products are GM .ALL THE REASON NOT TO BUY.
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Well done to all for the efffort of boycotting. Ever since the boycott I’ve been sourcing stuff from elsewhere like Clicks. What id like to know though is on the issue of G4S: does local government still enter into contracts with G4S?? Can anyone maybe obtain proof of this by way of maybe showing us readers a tender advertisement or the like ?
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i stay in the Vaal – Vanderbilpark in order to intensify this campaign we need to meet i want to know if there is forum that i can join in my area.
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Thanks for offering! Please contact the BDS SA office in Johannesburg? You can e-mail them at alerts@bdssouthafrica.com.
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We have submitted our farm to be a local pomegranate supplier, so here is hoping.
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Loved reading this thank you.
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