When is Greek yoghurt not Greek yoghurt?
The answer according to yoghurt manufacturer Fage is “When it isn’t made in Greece”. The company’s position appears to have gained credibility following the issuance of an injunction by the High Court in the UK – an injunction sought by Fage – which prevents Danone from marketing its recently-announced Danio as “Greek yoghurt”. It is reported that Danone has agreed to remove the offending description from its packaging and advertising.
The ruling follows a similar victory by Fage over Chobani late last year.
Fage’s position is that consumers will be misled by the appellation “Greek yoghurt”, assuming that the product is made in Greece. Fage is a Greek company although, ironically, it is no longer headquartered there. The position of Danone and Chobani is that “Greek yoghurt” describes a way of manufacturing yoghurt, rather than describing where it was made – and both companies claim that they have never made any secret of the fact that their yoghurt is not manufactured in Greece.
The court ruling is only the latest battle in an increasingly bitter war between Fage and rival manufacturers.
While Fage was – by some distance – the first to enter the Greek yoghurt market in the USA in 1998 (Chobani didn’t make its entrance until 2007), it has seen its market share drop rapidly to a point where Chobani now commands, by some estimates, close to 50% of all sales – three times that of Fage.
Greek yoghurt is now said to account for more than 35% of the $6.5 billion in total U.S. yoghurt sales.
