Waitrose axes tins showing ‘slaves on coffee plantation’
WAITROSE has taken tins of luxury coffee from its shelves because the labels show black plantation workers.
saquella’s 1856 coffee is decorated with an illustration of black labourers harvesting beans in Guatemala.
The picture also has a white plantation owner watching over a black mother carrying a child.
The Italian firm, which says the images were designed to depict how coffee was originally harvested, has apologised.
The range was pulled after customers spotted the tins in a London store. Patriic Gayle, 56, said: ‘I noticed a new tin with pretty packaging. I looked a little closer and suddenly thought, oh my God, these are slaves on a plantation. In one, you have got a white plantation owner looking at the slaves. It just about ticked all the horror boxes you can imagine.’
He complained at the store and the coffee was taken off the shelves. The next day, however, they had been restocked.
Mr Gayle and friend annette saunders then complained to Waitrose bosses directly. He said: ‘Did anybody stop to think what this picture was of?
‘It was a bit of a no-brainer. anybody would object.’
after a week the products were taken off shelves nationwide.
a Waitrose spokesman said: ‘We are sorry for any offence caused by the images. However, we fully understand how these could be interpreted and removed both products from sale in December until the supplier has had the opportunity to redesign the packaging.’
a saquella spokesman said: ‘We apologise to anyone that was offended by the images.
‘We were shocked to learn they had been interpreted in this way and the products were removed from sale.’