Del Monte has been dealt a blow after two British supermarkets announced that they will no longer source tinned pineapples from their farm.
According to sources, this decision was influenced by deaths reportedly performed by security guards at the company’s farm targeting pineapple thieves.
These deaths were revealed in 2023 by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the British publication The Guardian.
Despite public outcry, the violence allegedly persisted on the estate for the past year, with four men discovered dead in a river near the farm in December.
In another case, a passers-by were allegedly hit by stray gunfire amid a clash between police and local youngsters.
Now, Morrisons and Iceland, along with four other big supermarkets, namely Tesco, Asda, Sainbury’s and Waitrose, have stopped selling Del Monte pineapple products.
“We are moving tinned pineapple sourcing out of Kenya until Del Monte’s human rights improvement plan has been fully implemented,” Morrison’s said, according to The Mirror.
A spokeswoman for Iceland, which has over 900 locations in the UK, stated, “We can confirm that Iceland does not stock products from the farms in question.”
This string of mysterious killings first made international headlines in June 2023, when The Guardian revealed a slew of fatalities and violent attacks by the private security force Del Monte hires to protect its crops from thieves.
Locals accuse the company’s security personnel of killing nine males aged 22 to 52 since 2013.
The security guards have also been accused of rape, serious injuries, including head wounds, broken bones and cuts from blades requiring stitches.
The killings were horrific, with most victims dying from blunt force trauma caused by cudgels, rocks and fists.
Efforts to dispose of dead found on Del Monte property were similarly nasty.
For instance, Stephen Thuo Nyoike, who died at the age of twenty-two, was discovered strangled with wire by a public road.
