The Federation witnessed over the past few days, several campaigns calling for a boycott of products of companies and restaurants, that were claimed to support Israel in its war on Gaza, were multiple hashtags to boycott some companies topped the most trending list on Twitter, reflecting a state of public anger against these companies. Moreover, several citizens attacked some of these restaurants and destroyed their contents, all in response to the violations committed by the Israeli occupation army against children and defenseless innocents.
The Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, who undoubtedly stands with our brothers and sisters in Gaza, who with its members and the Arab Federations is providing humanitarian aid, yet, it must make clear that those companies operate under the franchise system, meaning that the parent company does not own any of the branches worldwide, where its branches in Egypt are owned by Egyptian investors, which are Egyptian joint stock companies, employing tens of thousands of Egyptians, paying taxes and social insurance to the state treasury. Also, the ones who might have supported the Israeli occupation army most were the agent in Israel in most cases, not the mother company, and of course not the agent in Egypt.
Moreover, such campaigns will not have any true impact on the parent companies, simply because Egypt constitutes less than 1 per thousand of global business volume, and the parent company’s share of franchising does not exceed 5% of the Egyptian company’s revenues, hence practically no impact on the mother company, but unfortunately the impact on the Egyptian investors and tens of thousands of workers will be profound.
Hence, the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce appeals to the Egyptians not to follow such calls to boycott Egyptian companies that carry a foreign trademark, as it harms investment and the Egyptian economy, and most importantly, the salaries of tens of thousands of Egyptians who work in those companies.