Grocers Won’t Be Fined for Grape Ads

Ralphs Grocery Co. and its sister supermarket chain Food 4 Less will avoid steep state fines for advertising Mexican-grown grapes as coming from California farms this summer.

After investigating the incident, the California Department of Food and Agriculture decided not to ask the state attorney general to prosecute the two supermarket chains, department spokesman Steve Lyle said Monday.

The chains, both owned by Cincinnati-based Kroger Co., faced fines as high as $3,000 for every misadvertised bag of fruit sold. “We needed to prove that there was an intention to deceive,” Lyle said. “And in the judgment of our general counsel that standard wasn’t met.”

Both Ralphs and Food 4 Less confirmed in July that they had advertised Mexican grapes incorrectly as California grown. At the time Ralphs spokesman Terry O’Neil said both cases were honest mistakes that were quickly corrected when the stores learned of their errors. Ralphs operates 315 stores in California; Food 4 Less has 140.

“Ralphs is pleased with the ruling,” O’Neil said Monday.

The state agriculture department found that the incorrect grape ads, which were sent out in June and July, arose out of confusion between the grocery chains’ ad and purchasing departments.

In both cases, the promotion department decided to put on sale certain varieties of California grapes, and “they just assumed that the grapes would be California grown but they never communicated with the buyers who went out and purchased Mexican grapes,” Lyle said.

During the early months of the grape harvest, Kroger’s chains typically buy Mexican grapes because they are less expensive than California-grown fruit, said Blain Carian, who farms 800 acres of early season table grapes in the Coachella Valley. Carian was one of the growers who brought a complaint about the ads to the state.

State law prohibits the misuse of the term “California grown” and the distinctive “CA grown” license plate logo in advertising.

The 4-year-old California Grown campaign is a joint effort of farmers and the state to bolster the value and consumption of California agricultural products. Trade associations representing producers of such goods as apples and wine have signed up with the Buy California Marketing Agreement to use the logo to promote their products.

“It is disappointing the state isn’t taking action” against Ralphs and Food 4 Less, Carian said.

Carian said Kroger’s buyers never contacted California farmers who were growing the grapes that the stores were advertising. If the chains planned to put those grapes on special it only made sense to contact the growers in advance and check on the availability of the fruit, he said.

The Kroger stores probably will be more careful not to mislabel Mexican fruit as California grown again, Carian said. “I don’t think the state will give them any slack in the future,” he said.

Kroger shares closed Monday at $20.22, up 15 cents.