Saudi Arabian, UAE products spoil on the shelf as Qatari populace reject it

After Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE illegal blockade on Qatar, there has been a great movement within the country to stand with Qatari products and those imported from countries like Turkey and Iran.  

While initially, people stocked on products from Saudi and the UAE fearing a shortage of food, that situation has rapidly changed.

But now, with the food situation completely taken care of, people are increasingly choosing to reject produce from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, reported Al Jazeera.

“The people are all asking me where the products are from. If I tell them Saudi or Dubai, they don't take it,” said Ranjit Kumar Pulami, a sales clerk at Al Meera grocery store in Doha.

“I don't buy those products,” said Fahad Jassim Al Tamemi, one of many shoppers boycotting products coming from those countries.

Some restaurant workers have said that food items from Saudi and the UAE were ordered to be removed from their pantries.

In supermarkets, Almarai products sit in piles labelled with discount signs in an effort to get rid of it. And residents who stocked up in the early days of the blockade are now regretting the move.

Meanwhile, a now three-week-old bottle of strawberry milk still sits in 24-year-old Mohammed's family fridge. It's a symbol of silent protest.

His mother was tempted to buy the Almarai milk because of the steep discounts, he says. “But then my sister gave her a dirty look.”

Consistent with Qatar's decision to take no retaliatory measures against the Arab countries sanctioning it, state media is refusing to egg on the drama.

Qatar Media Corporation released a commercial depicting a Qatari woman purchasing Saudi Arabian milk while words discouraging boycotting-behavior run.

But it seems to have had little to no effect on people’s decision.