Brussels, 05 Jul 2020 (SPS) - The three largest Swiss retailers, Coop, Migros and Denner have banned agricultural products originating in Western Sahara from their shelves, refusing to be complicit in the Moroccan occupation.
Swiss trade statistics consulted by the Western Sahara Resources Watch observatory, reveal that Switzerland ended its controversial agricultural imports from Western Sahara in 2019.
According to WSRW, 2019 was the first year that shows no imports of products from this territory.
Retailers Migros and Denner have both confirmed to the Swiss NGO "Terre des hommes Schweiz" that they did not purchase any product from Western Sahara in 2019 and that they will continue to ban these imports.
Migros and Denner followed the example of distributor Coop, which has already stopped reselling products from the occupied territory in 2017.
Retailer Migros specifies that after "extensive clarification and legal advice" in 2017, it has decided to "refrain from purchasing products from occupied areas in accordance with international law," a description that applies to the territory of Western Sahara.
For its part, Denner says the decision to stop these imports was made in 2017. (SPS)
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