South African NGO calls for global boycott of Nestlé

AfriForum, a South African civil rights organization, is urging consumers around the world to boycott Swiss food giant Nestlé for purchasing milk from a farm seized from its owners by president Robert Mugabe.

According to Kallie Kriel, CEO of AfriForum, the milk produced by the dairy farm - which is steered by first lady Grace Mugabe - is “blood milk”, emphasizing that Mugabe and his inner circle have obtained their wealth by means of the violent repression of thousands of Zimbabweans. Kriel furthermore said letters have been sent to Nestlé, informing the company of the action being taken. Afriforum would be calling on other human rights organisations to put pressure on the multinational company. He added the company owed the people of Zimbabwe an apology. Afriforum had created a website which includes photographs, video-clips and information about the "brutality with which the Mugabe regime represses the people of Zimbabwe," Kriel said. By clicking on a link, consumers can send messages of protest to Neslté's offices in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Switzerland. Earlier this week it appeared that Nestlé is purchasing 1 million liters of milk a year from The Gushungo Dairy Estate, a dairy farm that was seized from its owner in 2003 and is now controlled by the Mugabes. In a press statement, Nestlé motivated its decision: "During the last few years Nestlé has witnessed the collapse of Zimbabwe’s dairy industry. Nestlé prefers to work within contractual agreements to ensure a constant supply of fresh milk, but at the end of 2008, the company found itself operating in a market where 8 of its 16 contractual suppliers had gone out of business. As a result, in early 2009, Nestlé was forced to purchase milk on the open market from a wide variety of suppliers on a non-contractual basis. This includes milk from the Gushungo Dairy Estate which today accounts for between 10 percent and 15 percent of Nestlé's local milk supply."