A consumer boycott on Danone products in Morocco contributed to the French food giant's profits and sales sinking last year, it said Tuesday. The world's largest yoghurt maker said in a statement that its net profit fell by 4.1 percent to 2.35 billion euros ($2.65 billion) in 2018. Sales dropped by 2.1 percent in the last three months of the year, driven by a 35 percent plunge in Morocco, where there has been unprecedented boycott campaign over high prices against Danone milk and two other well-known brands since April.
The boycott's impact in 2018 "on total net sales was a decrease of -178 million euros (-$201 million) versus 2017 net sales, of which around two thirds come from losses in milk sales, and one third from losses in dairy products," the company said in a statement.
Chief financial officer Cecile Cabanis said in a conference call that there was still a market share for Danone's products in Morocco, but she did not expect to return to growth there before the end of 2019.
The boycott campaign against the high cost of living in Morocco spread like wildfire online last year, calling on Danone milk, Afriquia service stations and Sidi Ali water - the leaders in their sectors - to lower their prices. Despite the boycott, the company said its full-year reported sales were down just 0.7 percent
It benefited from sales of dairy products stabilising in Europe, growing strongly in the CIS region that includes most ex-Soviet countries and also improving in Latin America.
In North America, sales in the "essential dairy and plant-based" food products division surged by 12.2 percent to five billion euros. Sales of infant formula products fell in China, but Cabanis said the decline was slowing, dropping from 20 percent in the third quarter to 10 percent in the fourth.