Att: Mr Ziekenoppasser

Re: Dispute about advertisement: 100% FRESH FRUIT, we just bottle it"

Dear Mr Ziekenoppasser,

In a letter I wrote on 29 September 2003 to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, I was concerned about the above misleading advertisement of Namibian Dairies and I asked for an investigation. (To my findings, the concerned bottles of Namibian Diaries don’t contain fresh fruit).

2 visits, 4 letters, 13 telephone calls to the concerned Ministry and today exactly 6 months later I received a comprehensive letter from the Permanent Secretary of the Minister of Trade and Industry.

I learnt that Namibian Dairies registered the Trade Mark: "FRUIT, we just bottle it".

In the advertisement Namibian Dairies added the misleading word "100%" and "FRESH"

The Ministry stressed that the possible misleading label on the product has the potential to contravene the law.

However, as the Ministry confirms that the original Trade Mark was changed by Namibian Dairies no date was given by when the misleading advertising has to be or will be stopped.

Of special concern is the fact that the Line Ministry was not able or willing to protect the mislead customers in an acceptable period of time.

Dear Mr Ziekenoppasser, with my contribution I also try to encourage people to more critical approaches to services and products of national and multinational institutions. It also seems, we need the observation of the customer to keep up a code of conduct in the marketing practice in TEAM NAMIBIA.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely yours,

Uwe Rathmann, Grootfontein