I do remember that being an issue faced, but I swear it was more than ten years ago. Mitch Hedburg had a bit about it, "Stealth Bananas". Something like the local population didn't recognize what was being dropped, and stayed away.
Also remember one about confusion due to how something was packaged. Think it was peanut butter, and they didn't know how to open the jar? Easily could have been some racist bullshit someone was spreading.