Consumers are inadvertently purchasing foreign-owned grocery items while believing they’re supporting Aussie brands, according to a group of Australian-owned businesses.
Norco, SPC, Sanitarium, Mayvers Foods and Sunshine Sugar are calling for clearer product labelling, that specifies both a product’s country of origin and the business’s country of ownership.
They argue consumers are purchasing the household products they grew up with – many of them iconic Aussie brands stamped with “Australian Made” – in an effort to support Australian farmers and communities, not realising some of those companies are now foreign-owned.
“The big difference with ‘authentically Australian’ brands and products – those that are both Australian made and 100 per cent Australian owned – is that the money remains here in Australia and is not siphoned offshore,” Norco CEO Michael Hampson said.
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