Strauss CEO publishes boastful post: "A feast at our expense"
Strauss CEO Shai Babad boasted of profits in the hundreds of millions of shekels, but consumers are outraged by price hikes while global raw material costs are plummeting, and a public lobby organization is promoting action.
The profit celebration of food giant Strauss for the second quarter of 2026 ignited a storm on social media after a boastful post published by the group's CEO, Shai Babad, was met with public anger. Babad boasted of financial reports with an operating profit of about 363 million NIS and a net profit of about 195 million NIS, presenting the results as evidence of the company's resilience and strategic moves focusing on "activities where we have a real advantage." However, consumers and social activists immediately clarified what that "real advantage" is — predatory monopoly power in the Israeli food market, which allows the company to increase its profits directly at the expense of the public's pocket.
The sharp criticism focuses on the asymmetry of the company's pricing mechanism. When raw materials became more expensive globally, Strauss did not hesitate to raise prices three times by a cumulative rate of up to 30%, citing a surge in production costs, according to claims by users on social networks. However, now that the price of cocoa has plummeted in the last quarter by 55%, coffee prices have dropped by 22% to 26%, and the shekel has strengthened, prices on shelves in Israel have not only failed to drop, but have continued to rise. The company's coffee and cocoa product basket has become 5% more expensive over the year, Elite ground coffee by 9%, and Para dark chocolate by 8%, and this is what the public is angry about online.
This conduct is possible because Strauss is a monopoly in instant coffee, cocoa powder, chocolate bars, and dairy desserts, and when there is no real competition, the rules work in only one direction. Proof of this exists in competitive markets like the olive oil market; when prices in this market dropped globally, the consumer price in Israel dropped immediately, because Strauss is not a monopoly in this field and there is competition and free import. The growing public anger in the face of the CEO's bragging post is now leading to a broad campaign by the "Lobby 99" organization, which has formulated a plan to dismantle the mega-monopolies and is promoting it to parties ahead of the elections, out of the understanding that Israel does not need another "real advantage" for Strauss, but rather real competition.
Strauss CEO's post (LinkedIn)
