Boycott threat aims to sweeten chocolate prices

Months after a boycott on cottage cheese succeeded in lowering store prices in Israel, protesters have set their sights on chocolate in a bid to reduce local price tags.

The main target is local food manufacturer Strauss, which reportedly sells chocolate in the US for half the price it charges here.

In a letter to the Strauss management, protesters Monday objected to the price of the Pesek Zman candy bar after pictures posted on Facebook showed the chocolate wafer on sale in the US for 69 cents (about NIS 2.80) whereas the same product sells for more than NIS 6.00 in Israel (about $1.50).

Similar discrepancies were also found in the prices of Twist and Ta’ami chocolate bars. The letter, composed by a group of mothers, according to Ynet, charged that Strauss was taking advantage of its monopoly in the market. It threatened that barring an immediate price drop, the organizers would call for a month-long boycott of some Strauss products starting at the beginning of March.

The Purim holiday, which falls this year on March 7, marks an annual high point for chocolate and candy sales.

Strauss was also a target of last spring’s cottage cheese boycott. That movement galvanized the Israeli public and ulitmately led the company, and two other cheese product manufacturers to lower their prices.

Strauss responded to the complaints by saying the prices of its products were set by retailers and that it was possible to find Pesek Zman on sale in Israel for NIS 2 as well, Maariv reported. The company added that it would reduce by 10 percent the price of 50 of its central products.

Nonetheless, the threat of a boycott apparently gave investors food for thought and Strauss stock fell by 3.74 percent in trading on Sunday.