Economic Audit: Heinz

Target: Heinz (food brand; owned by The Kraft Heinz Company) Domain: Economic (Economic) Date: June 2026 Scope: The Heinz brand’s own economic conduct re Israel (market presence, sourcing, licensee). Kraft Heinz ownership and sibling brands are attributed at the parent/sibling level.

Supply Chain & Sourcing Relationships

Heinz ketchup sold in the Israeli market is imported, not locally manufactured. No public evidence has been identified of any Heinz tomato-sourcing arrangement from Israeli territory or from Israeli-controlled occupied territory. Heinz’s global tomato supply chain draws on growing regions in California, Spain, Brazil, Portugal, and Italy; its European processing hub is located in the Netherlands (Zoeterwoude), supplying Southern Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Africa.¹²

A UAE-registered entity, Heinz Africa and Middle East FZE, operates out of the Dubai Airport Free Zone (DAFZA) and serves as a regional distribution structure for Heinz products across Africa and the Middle East.³ Trade data for this entity does not publicly confirm shipments to Israel, and no documentary evidence of a direct supply chain from this Dubai entity to Israel has been identified.⁴

Kraft Heinz separately operates a manufacturing plant in Cairo (6th of October City) producing ketchup and mayonnaise; a $50 million expansion doubled capacity to 53,000 tonnes annually, with export targets directed at Middle East, African, and European markets.⁵ No public evidence identifies Israel as a specific destination for Cairo-sourced Heinz products.

Diplomat Group lists “Heinz sauces” among its imported brand portfolio distributed in Israel, confirming the supply chain flows through Diplomat as the Israeli gateway.⁶ The origin country of the Heinz ketchup distributed via Diplomat in Israel has not been definitively confirmed in accessible public sources; given Heinz’s European production architecture and the role of the Netherlands plant in Middle East supply, Netherlands-origin production is the most consistent with publicly available evidence, though this remains unconfirmed by primary labelling documentation.

No public evidence has been identified of Heinz sourcing any inputs - tomatoes, ingredients, or packaging - from Israel or from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Product Origin, Labeling & Regulatory Compliance

The 2015 Israeli Ministry of Health ruling is the most significant regulatory event in the Heinz brand’s commercial history in Israel.

In January 2015, Israeli food manufacturer Osem, which controls approximately two-thirds of Israel’s ketchup market, submitted laboratory test results to Israeli retailers claiming that Heinz ketchup contained only 21% tomato concentrate - below the 41% minimum required under then-current Israeli food standards for a product to be labelled “ketchup.”⁷ Osem petitioned retailers to remove Heinz ketchup from shelves.⁸

Israel’s Ministry of Health sided with Osem’s regulatory argument and ordered Heinz’s Israeli distributor, Diplomat Group, to relabel the product from “ketchup” (in Hebrew) to “tomato seasoning.”⁹ The ruling affected only the Hebrew-language label; English-language packaging was unaffected.¹⁰ Heinz - speaking through Diplomat - disputed the ruling, arguing that Israel’s standard “has yet to be brought in line with U.S. and European accepted international standards.”¹¹ Diplomat filed a petition to have Israel’s ketchup standard revised downward.¹²

Reversal in 2016: The relabelling order was reversed when Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Health Minister Yaakov Litzman jointly signed a Consumer Protection Law amendment adopting the lower international standard.¹³ Following this change, Heinz was permitted to resume using the “ketchup” designation on Hebrew-language packaging.¹⁴

Heinz ketchup products distributed in Israel carry dual kosher certification from the MK Manchester Beit Din and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and are classified as Kosher Pareve.¹⁵ A separate Kosher L’Pesach (Passover) certified production run is conducted at Heinz’s facility in Alfaro, Spain; this production supplies kosher consumers globally and is not exclusively Israel-targeted.¹⁶

No public evidence has been identified linking any Heinz product sold in Israel to production in Israeli settlements or occupied Palestinian territory.

Investment, Capital & Financial Exposure

No public evidence has been identified of the Heinz brand holding direct equity stakes, joint ventures, or financial instruments in Israel. The historical Israeli operational footprint consisted of a baby food business: H.J. Heinz Company divested its Israeli baby food operation - “Heinz Israeli Baby Food” - to Shemen Industries (headquartered in Haifa) on approximately 1 May 2005.¹⁷ Following this divestiture, no residual equity holding or financial exposure to Israel by the Heinz brand through that vehicle has been identified in public filings.

Kraft Heinz (the parent, attributed at the parent level for this audit) does not disaggregate Israel from its broader “Rest of World” segment in SEC filings. No Israel-specific revenue, profit, or capital exposure is publicly disclosed at the Heinz brand or Kraft Heinz group level.¹⁸

No public evidence has been identified of the Heinz brand purchasing Israeli government bonds, holding shares in Israeli companies, or making investments in Israeli financial instruments.

Operational Presence & Market Activity

Heinz maintains an active commercial presence in the Israeli consumer market through Diplomat Group, which has held exclusive distribution rights for Heinz food products in Israel since at least 2005.¹⁹ Diplomat’s heritage timeline records 2005 as the year it secured “exclusive distribution of Heinz” in Israel.²⁰ Diplomat is a major Israeli FMCG distributor operating from a distribution centre at Airport City adjacent to Ben-Gurion International Airport.²¹

Within Israel’s ketchup category, Osem maintains dominant market share of approximately two-thirds; Heinz occupies the primary imported brand position.²² Retail pricing at the time of the 2015 dispute placed Heinz ketchup at 13–14 NIS versus Osem’s 11–13 NIS; Diplomat’s competitive strategy included introducing a smaller (700 g) bottle to compete more directly with Osem at discount retail.²³²⁴

In 2022, Diplomat announced price increases of up to 16–25% across its imported portfolio including Heinz; the announcement triggered public consumer protests and government warnings, leading Diplomat to temporarily freeze the price increases.²⁵²⁶

No Heinz manufacturing facility is located within Israel. No public evidence has been identified of Heinz operating retail outlets, offices, or direct sales infrastructure inside Israel. All Israeli market activity is mediated through Diplomat Group.

Corporate Structure & Foundational Ties

The following is parent-level context on the ownership structure, documented for completeness. It does not constitute Heinz brand conduct.

The Heinz brand is owned by The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ: KHC), formed in 2015 from the merger of H.J. Heinz Company and Kraft Foods Group. Kraft Heinz’s principal shareholders include Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital, neither of which is an Israeli entity. Kraft Heinz’s Middle East commercial operations are managed through subsidiaries including Heinz Africa and Middle East FZE (Dubai Airport Free Zone) and European entities.³

Within the Heinz brand’s own history of Israel-specific structures: H.J. Heinz Company formerly held a direct operating presence in Israel through a local baby food entity (“Heinz Israeli Baby Food”), which it divested to Shemen Industries in May 2005.¹⁷ No successor Israeli subsidiary or joint venture under the Heinz brand has been identified in public records after that date.

The Heinz brand’s Israeli commercial relationship is therefore entirely mediated through a third-party distributor (Diplomat Group) and carries no retained corporate presence in Israel at the brand level.

Profit Repatriation & Economic Contribution

Because Heinz operates in Israel exclusively through an import-and-distribute model via Diplomat Group - with no Israeli subsidiary, joint venture, or direct sales entity - profit repatriation occurs indirectly. Diplomat Group purchases Heinz products at wholesale and takes margin from Israeli retail sales; Heinz/Kraft Heinz receives revenue on the wholesale transfer price for product shipped from European production facilities. Israeli VAT and import duties are paid into the Israeli tax base on importation.

No public evidence has been identified of formal royalty or brand licensing fees flowing directly from an Israeli entity to Heinz/Kraft Heinz for use of the Heinz brand; because Diplomat holds a distribution agreement rather than a manufacturing licence, the brand-licence economic flow is implicit in the wholesale product price rather than a separately declared royalty. No public royalty payment disclosures have been identified in Kraft Heinz’s SEC filings for an Israeli entity.

No public evidence has been identified of Heinz Israel-related dividend repatriation, since no retained equity vehicle in Israel exists post-2005 divestiture. The economic contribution of Heinz product sales to the Israeli economy includes retail/distribution margin accruing to Diplomat; customs and VAT revenues accruing to the Israeli state; and kosher certification fees paid to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.¹⁵

End Notes