Supermarketing: Stores declare war on sanction-busters

About this item

This 1988 article from a retail marketing publication reports on UK supermarket chains' efforts to prevent the illegal import and sale of South African goods relabelled to bypass international sanctions. It highlights evidence of ‘sanctions busting’ involving mislabeled produce and outlines retailer and activist responses aiming to uphold the boycott against apartheid South Africa. The piece also mentions an upcoming food fair linked to the retail sector.

Key points:
– Retailers including the Co-operative Retail Services and Gateway vowed to delist suppliers caught selling illegally relabelled South African products.
– New evidence revealed South African produce being relabelled as originating from countries like Israel, Mozambique, and Chile to evade sanctions.
– Author Jo Hanlon, working on a Commonwealth Secretariat report, identified Israel as a transit point for South African goods entering the UK market.
– The Anti-Apartheid Movement planned to intensify campaigns against retailers stocking South African produce despite sanctions.
– In Ireland, investigations were underway regarding alleged sanctions busting following import shifts to neighboring countries potentially linked to illegal relabelling.

This article reflects the internationalist campaigning spirit within the Black British and anti-apartheid movements during the 1980s, in which figures like Bernie Grant advocated for global solidarity against apartheid South Africa. The enforcement of economic sanctions was a key strategy in the UK and beyond to pressure the South African regime, with grassroots and political actors scrutinizing trade practices to uphold the boycott.

Source note: The OCR quality presents some fragmented sentences and unclear text sections, particularly in the latter part of the transcript unrelated to the sanctions story. The core information about sanctions busting and retailer responses remains coherent and forms the basis of this interpretation.