Fourteen students' unions nationwide declared Monday the start of a boycott on dairy products manufactured by Tnuva. They demand that the firm reduce prices on frozen products by 30 percent, and reduce prices on basic dairy products by 20 percent. The boycott will last at least until the holidays.

The organizers say that it is Tnuva that has driven up prices in the dairy products market and caused other firms to follow suit. Similarly, if it brings down prices, other firms will do the same.

Specific products the public is asked to boycott include: White Chef, Piraeus, Yoplait, Buddy and Prili dairy products.

Frozen products to be boycotted include the ones bearing the labels Sunfrost, Maadanot, Adom Adom, Mama Of, Tiv Tirat Tzvi, Olivia and Harduf.

Over 10,000 people have expressed support for the boycott by clicking on the appropriate button on the Facebook page. 

The page says that Tnuva controls 52 percent of the dairy product market and has been raising prices "just because it can" ever since it was taken over by buyout firm Apax Partners Worldwide in 2008. 

Arik Shor, Director of Tnuva, said Monday that the boycott was an unfair one. "There is a feeling that someone played Russian roulette and landed on us by chance," he told IDF Radio. "I was very disappointed to hear of it because of all the other companies, none is as Israeli as we are. We import nothing and rely only on local agriculture."

Dozens of students protested Sunday outside the home of Zehavit Cohen, Managing Partner and the Office Head of Apax Partners Israel Ltd.