AU: Growcom backs calls for clearer Country of Origin labelling laws
Growcom Chief Advocate Rachel Mackenzie says that Growcom has been lobbying for over ten years to change the misleading ‘Made in Australia’ definition which means that packaged and tinned product can have little local content at all and still carry that label.
“The ‘Made in Australia’ label can currently be placed on a product if 50 per cent of the costs are incurred here and it undergoes ‘substantial transformation’ after being imported. Mixing, homogenisation and curing are all considered to be a substantial transformation,” Ms Mackenzie said.
“With relatively low labour and other input costs in Asia and the Pacific, very little needs to be done to a product in Australia for that alteration to account for 50 per cent of costs. We think that most Australian consumers would expect that ‘Made in Australia’ refers to product content, not cost,” she said.
“In a submission to a 2009 Senate Inquiry, Growcom called for the ‘Australian Grown’ definition: ‘…that each significant ingredient has been grown in Australia, and that all or virtually all of the processes involved in the production of the good have occurred in Australian’ to become the definition for Made in Australia, product of Australia, and any other label that would lead consumers to think that the product’s ingredients were substantially local.
“The labelling of loose fruit and vegetables in stores is also potentially misleading. Under current laws, retailers can label a tray of product as ‘a mix of imported and local produce’ with no further explanation required as to whether that means 1 per cent imported and 99 per cent local, or the reverse. Growcom would like to see fruit and vegetables in stores separated into ‘local’ and ‘imported’ categories, so that consumers are able to make a fully informed decision on their purchase,” Ms Mackenzie said.
“Growcom does not oppose the sale of imported product which passes Australian biosecurity certification, but we think that fruit and vegetable consumers should be able to make a fully informed choice when shopping and not be misled by labels which very much blur the lines as to the product’s local content.
“We call on the federal government to listen to the community’s concerns on this issue, and act to make country of origin labels clear in Australia,” Ms Mackenzie said.
Contact:
Chris Walker
Growcom, together we grow
Tel: +61 7 3620 3844
Mob: +61 408 014 843
Fax: +617 3620 3880
www.growcom.com.au