Does Nestlé support Israel?

Nestlé S.A. acquired the remaining 36.3% of Israeli food maker Osem for about $840 million (€752 million, ILS 82.50 per share), taking 100% ownership and delisting what was then Israel's largest publicly traded food manufacturer from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Nestlé built the stake gradually: first investment and exclusive Israel distribution rights in 1995, majority control (50.1%) in 2002, 58.76% by 2012, full ownership in February 2016.

Through wholly-owned subsidiary Osem-Nestlé, Nestlé operates one of Israel's largest food manufacturers (Bamba, snacks, pasta, sauces, baby food), with production plants in Israel including Sderot, where Nestlé opened an R&D center in 2002 after taking majority control. Osem has been Nestlé's exclusive distributor in Israel since 1995.

Osem, Nestlé's Israeli subsidiary, signed a deal on 4 July 2019 to sell its whole Israeli ice-cream business — Glidot Nestlé (Nestlé Ice Creams), about 350 employees and the Kiryat Malachi plant that makes Crunch, Extrême, Kookilida, Gumigum and La Cremeria — to Froneri, at that time owned 50/50 by Nestlé and Britain's R&R. The price was not disclosed and the sale was expected to close by the end of September 2019. The deal completed the transfer of all of Nestlé's ice-cream operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa into Froneri, a consolidation begun in 2016; the plant stayed in Israel and the existing management kept running the business. This is an intra-group commercial transaction, not support of any kind, and the attribution matters in one direction: from this sale on, Nestlé-branded ice cream in Israel is Froneri's business, so the new Kiryat Malachi ice-cream plant that ynet reported in December 2019 — green-lit by Froneri chief executive Ibrahim Najafi — is Froneri's investment, not Nestlé S.A.'s and not Osem-Nestlé's.

Osem-Nestlé — the Israeli subsidiary, not the Swiss parent — sent food and water shipments to IDF soldiers at staging areas and to rescue forces in the first days of the October 2023 war, organized deliveries of tens of thousands of dry-goods products to the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers, and sent a dedicated shipment including baby food to residents of Sderot, with further products distributed to southern families via the Latet organization. Note: viral claims about "Nestlé donating to the IDF" originate from the subsidiary's own social-media posts amplified by advocacy aggregators; this item is based on independent Israeli press coverage and is attributed to the subsidiary.

Osem-Nestlé, the Israeli subsidiary Nestlé S.A. has owned outright since 2016, signed a 10-year agreement announced on 8 May 2024 to buy green electricity worth about NIS 300 million (about $80.8 million at the Bank of Israel rate of 3.713 shekels per dollar on 8 May 2024) from EDF Renewables Israel, drawn from dedicated solar fields with storage in the Negev and covering every one of its Israeli plants and sites. This is a commercial power-purchase contract with an Israeli energy company — the company is buying electricity, not giving anything away. The switchover was completed on 1 May 2026, when the Sderot and Yokneam plants, the Kiryat Gat plants that make Bamba, Tivall, Tzabar and Bonjour, the head office, the service centre and the logistics centres all moved to 100% renewable electricity supplied by EDF Power Solutions Israel, cutting about 30,000 tonnes of CO2 a year, roughly 30% of the company's emissions. Sourcing note: Calcalist and Ice both carry the NIS 300 million figure from the same company announcement of 8 May 2024, quoting the same words from chief executive Avi Ben Assayag, so they are two outlets and one announcement; the Walla report of the completed switchover is labelled branded content produced in cooperation with Osem-Nestlé.

Osem-Nestlé — the Israeli subsidiary, not the Swiss parent — stopped the production lines at its Sderot plant about a week and a half before Rosh Hashanah in September 2025 so that employees, senior managers and volunteers of the Israeli aid organisation Latet could pack 1,500 food baskets, each holding a full holiday meal, for families living with food insecurity. The company says it has worked on food security in Israel for more than 20 years and donates food worth tens of millions of shekels a year, and its CEO Avi Ben Assayag dates the partnership with Latet to more than 22 years; Latet's CEO Eran Weintraub calls Osem-Nestlé one of the organisation's central partners and puts the cumulative value of its donated food and support at hundreds of millions of shekels. The packing day repeated in September 2026, when plant employees and Latet volunteers, joined by dozens of Birthright participants from Los Angeles, packed hundreds more food parcels. Note on sourcing: all three ynet features are branded content produced in partnership with Osem-Nestlé, so they are the company's own account of its giving rather than independent reporting; Latet's own business-partners page carries the Osem-Nestlé corporate logo.