South Australia’s trade minister has urged businesses to take a stand against anti-Islamic “bullying”, after a dairy producer bowed to pressure and dropped its halal certification.
The Fleurieu Milk and Yoghurt Company says it will no longer pay a $1,000 fee to have its products certified as halal after receiving abuse on social media.
Dropping the certification means the company is likely to lose a yoghurt supply deal with airline Emirates, worth about $50,000 a year.
Sales and marketing manager Nick Hutchinson said the company had decided the trouble caused by the anti-halal backlash outweighed the benefits of the Emirates contract.
“A lot of people out there are under the belief that the fee you pay to Halal Islamic Group goes towards terrorism and so forth,” he told ABC radio. “They’re ridiculous claims … but there’s a loyal bunch of fans that are reading these feeds and they were starting to question us themselves.
“The publicity we were getting was extremely bad.”
The SA investment and trade minister, Martin Hamilton-Smith, said prejudice had no place in Australia and urged businesses to resist misinformed consumer bullying.
