Consumer group rejects Israel boycott call

The Swedish Cooperative Union (Kooperativa förbundet - KF) has ruled out calls from a regional member group to stop selling goods from Israel in Coop stores.

"KF's and Coop's criteria in selecting suppliers pays no heed to nationality. According to KF policy a boycott of trade with individual countries is determined by Sweden's government and parliament or the EU and/or the UN," KF wrote in a statement on Sunday.

Three resolutions urging a ban on Israeli products were approved by a majority of the 425 members in attendance at Saturday's annual meeting in Gothenburg of the consumer cooperative society for western Sweden, Konsumentföreningen Väst (KF Väst). The resolutions cited Israel's role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as grounds for a boycott.

"The board will now push the issue of a boycott to the other Swedish consumer cooperatives," said chairperson Carina Malmer in a statement.

KF Väst is one of the largest of the 47 consumer cooperative societies that make up the Swedish Cooperative Union, which has more than 3 million members.

The Swedish Cooperative Union owns the Coop chain of supermarkets. According to the union's own figures, the retail consumer cooperative societies and Coop together account for 21.4 percent of the grocery retail sector in Sweden.