A coalition of food producers says shoppers want to buy home-grown brands but are confused about which products are 100 per cent Australian owned. Five brands have formed a coalition, calling for 'country of ownership' labelling -- rather than 'Australia-made'.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00I'm here on this dairy farm outside Lismore for the launch of an Aussie ownership coalition.
00:08There's five Australian food businesses that have joined forces to push for better labelling
00:15when it comes to the ownership of Australian food.
00:19They fear that there's a lot of confusion amongst shoppers, and this confusion will
00:25drive more iconic brands offshore and less investment and less money going back into
00:32Australian communities.
00:34Spearheading this campaign is Norco, a 100% owned dairy cooperative, and the CEO is Michael
00:42Hampson and he joins me today.
00:45Why do you feel the need for this campaign to push consumers to back Australian owned
00:52products?
00:54So what we've seen from our research, Kim, is that there is mass confusion out there
00:58in the marketplace.
00:5930% of consumers have increased support for Australian owned businesses over the last
01:04few years, despite the cost of living crisis that everyone is working their way through.
01:08But of that, 81% of consumers are buying a product that they believe is Australian owned
01:15but it's actually foreign owned, which means that their hard working Aussie dollars are
01:19being siphoned offshore to foreign investors.
01:23So you're saying that consumers are looking towards that Aussie made logo, that very familiar
01:28triangular logo, the green logo with the yellow kangaroo, and that they're feeling confident
01:35that it's an Australian owned product as well as Australian made?
01:38Yeah.
01:39So that logo is good.
01:40It says that it's Australian made, and Australian made is good.
01:42It's certainly much better than imported product, but just because it's Australian made doesn't
01:47mean that it's Australian owned.
01:49And we're talking to the consumers that are actively wanting to support Australian owned
01:53products, and two thirds of consumers say that they would actively support 100% Australian
02:00owned businesses if that information was readily available.
02:04And also, three quarters of consumers believe that country of ownership should be on the
02:10food labels of the products that they buy on the supermarket shelf to really take any
02:14of this confusion out when they're making their purchase decisions for their weekly
02:18shops.
02:19You mentioned the cost of living crisis.
02:21Do you think Australians will pay more for Australian products?
02:26Are they more expensive, Australian products?
02:28There is a perception that Australian owned food is more expensive than cheap foreign
02:32imported food.
02:34We make some of the best food in this country.
02:36Our hardworking farmers make the best and safest food that's available.
02:41Just because it's Australian made and Australian owned doesn't always mean it's more expensive.
02:44There's certainly, if you have a look at the supermarket shelves, there's a lot of Australian
02:49owned companies that their products are in larger pack sizes and selling for a lower
02:55per unit shelf price.
02:57So that's fantastic values for Aussie shoppers today as they're going about, you know, living
03:02through this, you know, difficult cost of living crisis.
03:04Great.
03:05Thank you for your time.
03:06That is Michael Hanson, CEO of Dairy Cooperative Norco Food.
03:09And the five 100% owned Australian businesses make up nearly 500 years of history.
03:17They've formed this coalition.
03:19One of the youngest actually is Maver's Foods, a Victorian food company.
03:23The CEO is Bethany George.
03:25Hello, how you going?
03:26Hi Kim.
03:27Good.
03:28How are you?
03:29What sort of difference would a country of ownership label make to your business?
03:33It would be an amazing difference for our business.
03:37So we've been around for 25 years.
03:40And we participate across spreads with peanut butter, jam, almond butter, nutritional snacks,
03:47dog treats as well.
03:49And we've got a lot of competitors in the supermarket shelf that's quite challenging
03:53that are imported brands.
03:56In particular, when we look at jam, there's only one other Australian business that's
04:00Australian owned and also using Australian fruit.
04:03And we're the second entry into the jam category.
04:06Everything else is all imported from France or New Zealand.
04:10And it's super important that we reinvest that money being Australian owned into our
04:15local communities, supporting our farmers and our growers, and reinvesting into our
04:21community and our business for that future growth.
04:24So it'd be a huge difference.
04:26So do you think a better labelling that if there was a country of ownership label that
04:31consumers would be buying your products?
04:33100%.
04:34There's a lot of mass confusion, especially when it comes to our peanut butter.
04:39A lot of consumers actually don't understand that we're family owned and Australian made.
04:44And if we actually had that on the label that we're proudly Australian owned, it would mean
04:49that there would be less confusion with 61% of consumers saying that they would support
04:54Australian owned brands more if they had that information readily available on the label.
04:59I think it would make a huge difference to making that shopper decision at the supermarket
05:04shelf extremely more efficient, but also easier for them as well.
05:08Mavis Foods is just one of five Australian owned companies involved in this coalition.
05:13We've heard from Norco.
05:14There's also SPC, Sunshine Sugar and Weet-Bix owner, Sanitarium.
05:19But how this Australian ownership label or extra information on a product will look,
05:24that's yet to be seen.