Further information about EDOM UK: signs of more mislabelling

Plaque from Valley Grown Salads and Glinwell to Edom Uk office in the Arava.


After finding a packinghouse bearing  Edom UK signage  inside the settlement of Tomer in the Jordan Valley a few weeks ago, we decided to look more closely into this joint Israeli and British company and their exports.
As mentioned in the previous report, the British company Valley Grown Salads own 20% of the shares in Edom UK, and since then we have found out that another British company, Glinwell PLC, own another 20%. 30% is owned by a company called Chosen Agricultural Products, which consists of farmers from Moshavs in the Arava region, and a further 30% by a company called Magnolia UK holdings. (more…)

“Produce of Israel”: British Company Mislabelling Settlement Goods


Herbs inside the Halpert Moshe Packing House


Despite increased publicity regarding the labelling of Israeli settlement produce, and the recent DEFRA guidance on the matter which states that produce from the settlements should be labelled as such, it only took us a few minutes inside the illegal Jordan Valley settlement of Mehola to find herbs bound for a British company being mislabelled. Herbs bearing the logo of Fresh Direct, who have their head office in Oxfordshire, were spotted inside the Halpert Moshe ‘fresh herbs’ packing house which operates under the Carmel Agrexco banner. At this location herbs being prepared came with a joint Fresh Direct/Carmel Agrexco label which clearly states the product as being “Produce of Israel”, despite being packaged in an organic farm on an illegal settlement in the Israeli occupied West Bank. The label we collected was for 70 grams of sage with the text written in English, indicating that the contents were intended for export to Britain. There were also herbs labelled in German (without the Fresh Direct logo) inside the packing house. (more…)

Grapefruit supplied by Israeli company Mehadrin on sale in Lidl. Photo by Corporate Occupation May 2019

Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets (2020 Update), Endnotes

Here are the references for our 2020 update to Apartheid in the Fields P3. Introduction https://mondoweiss.net/2019/11/un-publishes-database-ofcompanies-profiting-off-human-rights-abuses-not-on-israel-but-myanmar/ P4. The ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Jordan Valley https://btselem.org/jordan_valley See, for example, https://corporateoccupation.org/2010/08/11/the-jordan-valley-meeting-point-the-jewish-national-funds-racist-alternative-reality/ https://m.btselem.org/jordan_valley http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/reports/al-jazeera-how-israel-engages-in-water-apartheid/ http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/reports/al-jazeera-how-israel-engages-in-water-apartheid/ http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/news/tractors-and-water-tanks-confiscated-in-al-maleh/ http://jordanvalleysolidarity.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/jv%20map%20tony.jpg https://www.btselem.org/jordan_valley https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/jordan-palestine-refugee-camps-photography-a8341826.html https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Nahal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalya Corporate Occupation has interviewed multiple Jordan Valley residents who were forced […]

Sainsburys logo

Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets (2020 Update), Part 7.7: Sainsburys

Like its competitor Tesco, Sainsbury’s has previously sold produce that the supermarket knew was from illegal West Bank settlements. It continues tostock produce from Mehadrin. In 2008 activists took photographs of Sainsbury’s ‘SO Organic’ and ‘Taste the Difference’ Medjoul dates clearly labelled ‘Grown in West Bank’ inside the Jordan Valley […]

Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets (2020 Update), 5: Jordan Valley settlements and the companies exporting from them

During 2018, we visited the settlements of Argaman, Na’ama, Mehola, Tomer, Gilgal and Beit Ha’Arava. We photographed the signage and packaging of a number of Israeli companies (listed below). Argaman settlement Argaman is a Jordan Valley settlement off route 90, which is the road running north from Jericho, through the […]

Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets (2020 Update), 3.5: Hadiklaim

Hadiklaim date growers’ co-operative is Israel’s number one exporter ofMedjoul dates,[1] and one of the top global exporters.[2] The cooperative controls the King Solomon Dates and Jordan River brands.[3] Both brandsexport dates from the settlements in the Israeli occupied Jordan Valley.In 2017, Hadiklaim’s Yaniv Cohen told industry website Fresh Plaza […]

Apartheid in the Fields: From Occupied Palestine to UK Supermarkets (2020 Update): Contents

Part 1 Introduction The ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Jordan Valley Israel’s annexation plan for the Jordan Valley (map) Mislabelling: A systematic and deliberate attempt to mislead consumers Why do companies mislabel settlement goods as ‘Produce of Israel’? Examples of systematic mislabelling uncovered by Corporate Occupation’s research in 2018 Timeline: […]