Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Amina Aouadi
Published on 2024-02-26 15:42:28
The Algerian company Amor Benamor, a flagship of the national agri-food industry, finds itself at the center of a grotesque counterfeiting case.
Packages of couscous, perfectly imitating the packaging and logo of the brand, are circulating in the French markets, bearing the label of a Moroccan company.
This attempt at usurpation, far from being an isolated case, is part of a series of cultural and economic appropriations that Morocco is trying to impose on Algeria.
The packaging, the colors, the logo, everything is copied identically…. except for the manufacturer’s address, discreetly hidden on the back of the package.
This deception aims to deceive consumers and take advantage of the reputation of a well-established Algerian brand on the international scale.
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This attempt at intellectual property theft is just the tip of the iceberg of a deeper problem. Morocco, in a desperate attempt to establish its national identity, regularly appropriates elements of Algerian heritage, from Raï to gastronomy to crafts.
Faced with this latest provocation, Algerians are mobilizing to defend their heritage and culture on various social networks. Consumer vigilance is essential to counter this counterfeiting and protect the national economy.
Authorities are called upon to take firm measures to put an end to these abusive practices and preserve the country’s cultural heritage.
The Amor Benamor couscous scam takes on an international dimension.
Even worse, the scam is not limited to the French market. Similar cases were reported in Canada in September 2023, where Algerian consumers found counterfeit packages of Amor Benamor couscous on supermarket shelves.
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Consumers claim that the manufacturer’s address mentioned on the package does not correspond in any way to that of the Amor Benamor company, based in Guelma, Algeria.
In reality, it refers to a company named Napro10, located in Rabat, Morocco. This geographic expansion of counterfeiting underscores the urgency of concerted action by Algerian authorities and the company in question.
Read the original article(French) on Algerie 360
