CFA member CHOICE says the advertising campaigns being run by Coles and Woolworths showing support for Australian suppliers and producers¹ are not reflected in the supermarket home-brand products shoppers are finding on the shelves.
CHOICE compared the country of origin of 360 products across 90 popular grocery lines, including cereals, biscuits, snacks, tinned goods and frozen packaged food, matching supermarket home-brand products against their market leader equivalents.
Of the products surveyed, 55% of Coles’ home-brand products and 38% of Woolworths’ home-brand products were locally made or grown, compared with 92% per cent for market leader grocery items.²
“While it’s clear that Coles and Woolworths support Australian produced products in the fresh food and bakery sections of their stores, it’s a different story when you walk along the aisles,” says CHOICE spokesperson, Ingrid Just.
Australian primary producers have told CHOICE that they are not being given the opportunity to supply Coles and Woolworths with produce for tinned and packaged groceries.
“Coles and Woolies claim their buyers only look to overseas markets when local suppliers are unable to meet customers’ needs,” says Ms Just.
“However, one farmer told us that that 70,000 tonnes of vegetables including onions, potatoes and carrots will go to waste in Tasmania alone this year. We have also been told that tenders to supply vegetables for private label products are not being made public, or are often by invitation only,” says Ms Just.
CHOICE’s review of the country of origin of packaged, tinned and frozen items found 13 of the 14 Woolworths home-brand frozen vegetable products were sourced internationally. Additionally, 19 of Woolworth’s 21 private label tinned fruit and vegetable products came from overseas.
This year Coles have moved towards including more Australian produce across its frozen goods, however the CHOICE review found nine of the supermarket’s 13 tinned home-brand fruit and vegetable products came from overseas.
“Australian shoppers rate local products highly – many feel it’s important to know the food they are buying is made from Australian ingredients and packaged in Australia.³ The policies and advertising of the big two supermarkets taps into that sentiment, but what you find on the shelves is quite different,” says Ms Just.
CHOICE says clearer country of origin labelling would help consumers make more informed decisions, because it will help them better understand where the produce they buy comes from.
“Currently a confusing mix of country of origin terms is used on packaging. Easy to understand country of origin labels would help consumers look past the marketing hype,” says Ms Just.
Read CHOICE’s full report into the sourcing of home-brand products by Coles and Woolworths.
Notes
*Supermarket home-brand products may also be known as supermarket ‘private label’ products or supermarket ‘generics house brands.’ Eg Coles Smart Buy, Coles or Woolworths Select or Woolworths Homebrand.
¹ Coles told CHOICE it has an Australia-first sourcing policy that extend to all private label products, of which it claims 90% are locally made or grown. According to the 2011 All About Coles report Coles says ‘we will always try to source products locally and will only import if Australian supply is insufficient to meet customers’ needs”. Woolworths Sustainability Strategy for 2007-15 claims Woolies remains “committed to our long standing policy of giving preference to Australian vendors who can meet our supply requirements.” Woolworths promises preferential trading terms to local vendors for private label goods and claims 90% of its Homebrand products are from Australia.
² We included any product that was made in Australia or included Australian-grown ingredients. But these products may still include ingredients from overseas.
³ 83% of CHOICE members surveyed in 2011 said buying Australian-owned is important to them. 89% of respondents to a 2009 Roy Morgan survey said it’s important that the food they buy is Australian.