Let Tesco Know Why You Will Boycott Their Products (Email Template)

ACTIONS

Email Addresses:
Email Template:

(NB: It’s always best to personalise, if you have a relationship with this organisation or if thereare relevant details which would be helpful to mention, please add this to your email. For example you may wish to mention any programming they have done which has centred decolonial practice, political statements they may have previously made (eg. Ukraine, Black Lives Matter), or perhaps they have a publicly available ethics policy that would be useful to mention)

To whom it may concern,

I have been shopping at Tesco for [X] years, and I am concerned about the growing number of

products stocked in Tesco shops which are unethically sourced from the Occupied Palestinian

Territories. I am writing to urge you to take decisive action to identify and eliminate stock which is

produced and procured by companies who do not comply with international law. Until Tesco’s

corporate body makes a meaningful commitment to addressing this urgent issue, I will be boycotting

any Tesco products I find to be complicit and I will be openly urging others to do the same.

For your reference, I have identified two suppliers of produce currently stocked by Tesco which have

a record of conducting exploitative farming practices in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian

Territories:

  • Mehadrin is Israel’s largest grower which exports citrus fruit, avocados, dates, as well as other produce. It operates packing houses for fruits and vegetables in the Occupied Jordan Valley and grows crops in the Occupied Palestinian Settlements. The Jaffa citrus brand is part of Mehadrin. The land used to grow Mehadrin crops is occupied by illegal Israeli settlements which have displaced Jordan Valley Palestinians, deprived them of a vital source of income, and bottlenecked their water supply. In order to maintain this operation, Mehadrin hires agricultural workers from the West Bank and pays them a lower wage than Israeli workers. The exploitation of Palestinian people and land is fundamental to Mehadrin’s agricultural operations and if unchallenged, it will continue to perpetuate the normalisation of the illegal settlements in the West Bank and the occupied Jordan Valley region.

  • Hadiklaim, or Israel Date Growers Cooperative, is the world’s market leader in medjool dates. In Tesco, they are labelled as ‘Jordan River’ dates. Like Mehadrin, Hadiklaim grows produce on occupied Palestinian land, further displacing local communities. Hadiklaaim also frequently mislabels its products as ‘Made in Israel’ to obscure their true origins. By stocking Hadiklaim products, Tesco is complicit in supporting an unjust supply chain that enables illegal settlement expansion, and misleads consumers purchasing their products.

By partnering with producers that cultivate their goods on stolen land and harvest their produce using

the cheap labour of the same people they have dispossessed, Tesco is abetting illegal occupation

and apartheid. Tesco claims to be ‘committed to upholding human rights and fully support[s] the

United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour

Organization (ILO) Core Conventions’, yet continues to partner with organisations which are in direct

violation of the conventions of the ILO.

Until Tesco has adopted a Human Rights policy which encompasses its commitment to stocking

ethically sourced goods, and materially divests from partnerships with Israeli producers operating in

the Occupied Palestinian Territories, I will be shopping at alternative supermarkets, and will not be

using other Tesco services such as Tesco Bank and Tesco Mobile.

I eagerly anticipate your response

Sincerely,

[Name]

[Date]