Denmark: Public backlash against Polish goods

Danish supermarket chain Netto has dropped plans to bring in more Polish food products amid a public backlash that was joined by Denmark’s Agriculture Minister Mette Gjerskov. The minister wrote on her Twitter account that Polish products meant “more pesticides, bad animal husbandry and less pay.”

© 2004 by Tomasz Sienicki (wikicommons)

The Netto chain had claimed that by upping its stock of Polish products, customers would have lower costs. But the intense customer backlash has prompted a very different outcome, with certain Polish items, including all fresh meat products, being cut entirely from stock. “We can see that customers want Danish products, and it is the customers who ultimately decide what we stock in Netto,” director of the chain Claus Juel-Jensen told Danish daily Berlingske.

He had earlier stressed that Poland followed the same rules concerning foodstuffs as other EU Member States, and because of this Polish products should be included alongside those from Italy, France and Sweden.

Netto currently has 435 outlets in Denmark, 341 in Germany, 152 in Sweden and 265 in Poland.

Source: Polish Radio