Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Shalom Simhon has asked the public to keep its sanity and not to boycott supermarkets and food companies. Speaking at the Expert Conference for Developing Retail Business, he was responding to the latest calls for boycotts against dairy products, Israel's largest supermarket chain Shufersal Ltd. (TASE:SAE), and Tnuva Food Industries Ltd.
"Just as we don’t want the Turks to boycott Israel, there is no reason to boycott supermarkets and food companies," said Simhon. "The social protest has pointed to a change in the agenda. The food committee and the Trajtenberg committee are working hard, and it would be wrong to begin mutual boycotts. It isn't the job of the student union to declare boycotts of supermarkets, just as I would not accept the Chambers of Commerce halting its financing of scholarships."
Simhon added, "It's unreasonable to launch a measure in which everyone is a law unto himself and decides to boycott this supermarket and then that supermarket. We have an economy built from the bottom up. We hug the protesting students, but I ask them, don’t throw away the bucket with the milk. It is necessary to deal with the over-concentration and promote competition, but the rules must be kept. I call on the students to stop for a moment, because the boycotts will return like a boomerang. The economy is too important to batter it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 8, 2011
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