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The president of Goya Foods says that the boycott for his praise to Trump did not hurt him: "Sales went up"

2020-10-28T02:02:48.904Z


At an Ivanka Trump campaign event in Miami, Robert Unanue, the CEO of the largest Hispanic grocery company in the United States, said he has no regrets for his comments at the White House.


The president of Goya Foods, Robert Unanue, in Miami (Florida) .Lorena Arroyo / EL PAÍS

Until mid-July, Robert Unanue was an unknown businessman to the general American public.

Despite running Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic food company, his face and name were unfamiliar in the United States until the president invited him to the White House and he did not hesitate to say that the country had been "truly blessed" by have a leader like Donald Trump.

The statements provoked a strong rejection of Latino leaders who could not believe that the CEO of a business that benefits economically from that community was supporting a president they considered anti-immigrant.

From social networks there was a call to boycott their products.

However, Unanue now says that that boycott, far from harming them, benefited them because they got new clients.

"The controversy did not affect us at all because we continued working," said Goya's president this Tuesday at an Ivanka Trump event in Miami in which he participated. "There was no alternative, but we also got many new clients, new consumers who were on the go. I agree not to give up, not to ask for forgiveness for saying the word blessed. "

After that controversial episode, he says, his company's sales grew and this month Goya Foods announced an investment of $ 80 million in one of its factories and distribution center in Brookshire, Texas.

In a polarized America, Unanue's words not only generated a boycott, but also the opposite effect: In the conservative ranks, many people began to promote Goya products almost as a form of patriotism.

Among those people was the president himself, who posted on his Instagram account a photograph of him sitting in the Oval Office with Goya products on the table, while his daughter and advisor Ivanka Trump uploaded to his social networks an image of him holding a can of beans and the company's slogan: "If it's Goya, it has to be good," in English and Spanish.

Perhaps to return the favor of that promotion that the Trumps did, this Tuesday Unanue appeared at an Ivanka Trump campaign event in Miami.

Sitting in the front row, the businessman became one of the stars in the audience of an event in the key state of Florida, full of Hispanic supporters of the president.

The businessman did not stop giving interviews to the press, taking photos with the attendees who requested it and even dancing to the rhythm of the songs that heated the event before the arrival of the presidential adviser.

With Ivanka Trump on stage, Unanue earned an ovation from the audience who shouted "Goya, Goya, Goya!"

after the president's daughter mentioned that company's contribution with donations to Trump's Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, an executive order aimed at improving Hispanic Americans' access to educational and economic opportunities.

"My crime was to say [that the United States was] blessed [to have Trump as president] and I am not going to back down a word that comes from God, I am not going to deny it," Unanue said Tuesday.

The businessman, who is the grandson of a Spaniard from Burgos who emigrated to New York at the beginning of the 20th century, from whom he inherited the company, defines his support for the president as a matter of faith.

And he gives as an example the express recovery of the president from the coronavirus, a disease from which he also caught.

“It was cured in a week.

It's a miracle.

I spent months, I was fatigued and I am younger than the president, but the president was cured in a week.

That was sent by God from heaven, so you have to believe ”, affirmed Unanue.

The president recovered from covid-19 at the beginning of the month, in part thanks to an experimental treatment that was not available to the general public.

Although Unanue is clear about his support for President Trump because he believes that the Democratic party wants to "remove God" from the lives of Americans, his company has also supported initiatives with governments of that political sign.

In 2012, Goya's president was part of an activity to promote healthy eating promoted by then-first lady Michelle Obama.

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Source: elparis

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