The 2017 Chilean raspberry racket concerned low-cost conventional frozen raspberries that were shipped to another country, where they were repacked and relabelled as coming from that higher-priced country in order to benefit from lower import duties at the final destination. At some point during the process, the product became organic, using fake certificates. This deception was discovered due to industry whistleblowing. The same product was also involved in an outbreak of norovirus, causing a serious food safety issue. In this article below, we mention countries and the product, but not the companies involved.
The conventional frozen raspberries originated in China and were routed via New Zealand to Chile. There, the berries were repacked with the labels ‘Product of Chile’ and ‘Organic’. The majority of the berries were shipped to Canada, where they were again repacked, processed and marketed in North America.
The Chilean importer/packer/exporter had complicated product flows. Over a number of years, it handled different berries from different origins. It was importing some Chinese product directly from China but most of it via New Zealand. It also imported Mexican, Canadian, Polish and Greek products via Canada, but also some Polish and Greek products via France. Turkish products came directly from Turkey and partly via the US. Only Peruvian products came directly from Peru. There were apparently no
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