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'.
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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
00:42Hanson.
00:43So what we've seen from our research, Kim, is that there is mass confusion out there
00:47in the marketplace.
00:4830% of consumers have increased support for Australian owned businesses over the last
00:53few years, despite the cost of living crisis that everyone is working their way through.
00:57But of that, 81% of consumers are buying a product that they believe is Australian owned,
01:04but it's actually foreign owned, which means that their hardworking Aussie dollars are
01:08being siphoned offshore to foreign investors.
01:11Five 100% owned Australian businesses make up nearly 500 years of history.
01:19They've formed this coalition.
01:21One of the youngest, actually, is Maver's Foods, a Victorian food company.
01:26The CEO is Bethany George.
01:28There's a lot of mass confusion, especially when it comes to our peanut butter.
01:32A lot of consumers actually don't understand that we're family owned and Australian made.
01:38And if we actually had that on the label, that we're proudly Australian owned, it would
01:42mean that there would be less confusion, with 61% of consumers saying that they would support
01:47Australian owned brands more if they had that information readily available on the label.
01:52I think it would make a huge difference to making that shopper decision at the supermarket
01:57shelf extremely more efficient, but also easier for them as well.
02:01Maver's Foods is just one of five Australian owned companies involved in this coalition.
02:06We've heard from Norco.
02:07There's also SPC, Sunshine Sugar and Weet-Bix owner, Sanitarium.
02:12But how this Australian ownership label or extra information on a product will look,
02:18that's yet to be seen.