Austria: Uproar over 'Turkish' milk

NÖM, an Austrian dairy headquartered in Baden (Lower Austria), is getting calls and protest mails and a boycott action is being organized against the company.Three weeks ago the company started marketing milk cartons with Turkish on the packaging, mainly to 300 Turkish shops. The carton says "Süt" (Turkish) instead of "Milch" (German). The company wanted to appeal to the Turkish community, which buys large quantities of dairy products. NÖM spokesperson Maria Kitzler says that they wanted to avoid foreign competition, so it's good for jobs. The niche product is not offered in Austrian supermarkets. Kitzler adds that the milk is labeled on two sides in Turkish, and two sides in German.NÖM chairman Alfred Berger says that the bilingual packaging is a service and that Turkish customers should also be able to read the detailed information. By offering Lower Austrian quality in Turkish supermarkets and fighting the foreign competition, they're marketing for Austria, not against it.The issue has been a topic of discussion for days in Turkish-language newspapers, but only on Monday and Tuesday grew into a storm of protest. Similarly to the minaret discussion, some fear a threatening advance of Islam.
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