US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been named the "Employee of the Month" at Goya Foods after an apparent boycott led to the Latin cuisine brand receiving a sales spike.
Speaking on the Michael Berry Show on Monday, Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue revealed: "When she [AOC] boycotted us, our sales actually increased 1,000 percent.
"So we gave her an honorary, we never were able to hand it to her, but she got employee of the month for bringing attention to Goya and our adobo."
In addition, Unanue said that the 31-year-old New York Democrat's comments allowed the company to expand its reach to "so many new people", all while holding on to its existing customers.
Per the New York Post, Ocasio-Cortez appeared to slam Unanue after he praised President Donald Trump during a visit to the White House back in July.
During a speech following a roundtable with the President and other Hispanic leaders, Unanue said: "We're all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder."
Trump signed an executive order on the "White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative" during the event.
However, Ocasio-Cortez as left unimpressed by Unanue's comments, and took to Twitter to share the story, writing alongside it: "Oh look, it's the sound of me Googling 'how to make your own Adobo'" (referring to one of Goya's popular seasonings).
Ocasio-Cortez followed this up by sharing a screenshot of a message from one of her friends, who had shared with her a family recipe for adobo.
"Get yourself friends like these: this tweet wasn’t up for TWO MINUTES when my friend hit me up with the recipe," AOC wrote alongside the screenshot.
Following the social media spat, President Trump even got involved, tweeting to his "I LOVE @GoyaFoods!"
Trump even posted a photo on Instagram showing him giving two thumbs up while seated behind a row of Goya Foods products.
Unanue said on the radio show that it was "interesting" to see Ocasio-Cortez calling to boycott Goya and "go against her own people... to go against people of her own Latin culture" - with Goya foods billing itself as the country's largest Hispanic-owned food company.
He added: "To some extent, I can understand AOC. She's young, she's naive, she doesn’t get it.
"But you’ve got someone like [Senator Bernie] Sanders, who's older than us [...] other than me, who still doesn't get it."