The British Cooperative Group Cooperative has decided to terminate trade relations with countries that have been widely violated human rights and violated international law.
In recent years, through feedback and resolutions, cooperative members have been stressing that conflict is the main concern.
The board of directors of the cooperative learned this strong message from its members and reviewed how the cooperative contributed to peace.
This led to the launch of the campaign: “Hate divides the community, collaboratively establishes them.”
The review further led to the development of procurement policies that reflect traditional cooperative values, focusing on human rights and legal compliance to promote fair trade and support peace initiatives.
The retailer has established three standards to stop procurement from certain countries: consensus in the United Nations ongoing assessment of ongoing human rights violations or international law violations, which is the potential of cooperatives in actions that create meaningful differences and reduce suffering, and ensure that such actions do not compromise on the commercial success of Co-op or respect for shared actions.
Therefore, efforts will be made to exclude ingredients from cooperative brand products or to sell 17 products that are certainly focused on.
The list includes specific products sourced specifically from the country of its origin, such as Russian vodka, Mali mango and Israeli carrots.
These items will be gradually removed from partner stores and products starting from June 2025.
Debbie White, chairman of the Board of Cooperation Group, said: “This policy has been collaboratively established their campaigns over the past year as part of our hate-dividing community, which is a clear demonstration of our values of cooperation in action, in which the voices of our members are heard and then taken action.
“We promise that we can remove products and ingredients from our shelves from countries where international consensus indicates that what is happening in these countries and in our cooperative values and principles.
The decision, endorsed by the Cooperative Group Board, is in line with the start of the two-week period of the Cooperative and will be held in the UK from 23 June to 6 July.
“Stop Trade with Countries Violating Human Rights” was originally created and published by GlobalData-owned Brand Retail Insight Network.
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