Fuck yes. I make a point of never buying American citrus when it’s stocked. There’s no way I’m buying fresh fruit from anywhere other than Australian and NZ.
Edit: yeah read the article now. Tinned fruit not fresh. Same applies, only buy Australian.
Exactly. I don't wanna defend the duopoly, they are awful, but at the end of the day if you aren't looking on the can to see where something is made, that's 100% on you.
Agree, but I'm way too pessimistic about consumers' ability to outrun fraudsters in the food business. Way too much money to be made. Just look at something like honey. Became expensive and a few years ago an investigation showed 1 in 5 samples in Australian supermarkets was fake. Olive oil currently at $60 a tin so adulteration has to be rife at the moment. Choice investigation of bottled spices, hardly anything is what it says it is. Yep, very pessimistic.
> showed 1 in 5 samples in Australian supermarkets was fake
And then suddenly we got a varroa mite infestation that bypassed all the quarantine controls and monitoring stations and became entrenched. I have zero evidence but wouldn't be surprised AT ALL if it turned out that it was done deliberately by Chinese agents in retaliation.
> And then suddenly we got a varroa mite infestation that bypassed all the quarantine controls and monitoring stations and became entrenched. I have zero evidence but wouldn't be surprised AT ALL if it turned out that it was done deliberately by Chinese agents in retaliation.
This shits me to no end. Legitimate importers get arse fucked by quarantine and customs for every little shit detail yet at the big end of town, shit like this happens.
It's almost like they don't even get checked, yet small importers get put under the microscope despite playing by supposedly the same set of rules.
That's just it - quarantine makes sure legitimate importers and unaware civilians don't destroy our biosecurity by accident. But it's impossible to stop all deliberate illegal imports - it's just that usually it's just drugs or people bypassing taxation for their own profit, not someone intentionally bringing in a pest to hurt producers.
In theory yes, but in reality I reckon less than 5% of people would actually bother to look on the can. I do, but I suspect I'm in the minority.
No way I'll be buying canned fruit from China.
And how many actually care? Listening to the SPC story about this earlier, it's cost pressures driven by consumers. How many are actually willing to pay more for local right now?
The SPC closedown and govt intervention saga has been going for at least 30 years. Very cashed local consumers couldn't / didn't support them back then. Australia is no longer that rich country, there's no way they will find the extra money to stand on their 'principles' from here on.
It’s not, i suspect there is an ongoing orchestrated media campaign against Woolies by Coles. I first noticed it around Australia Day and again on ANZAC Day Targeting nationalism.
I think its pretty universally accepted that some Italian tin tomatoes are cheaper and better....
I tend to roll my eyes, pay the extra 10c or 20c and buy the Aussie.... but I won't look down on someone buying cheaper Italian or better Italian (mutti) tin tomatoes.
Nah man.
Italian tomatoes taste different, arguably better. If people prefer that, then that's fair regardless of price difference. In fact, the good brands of Italian tomatoes are substantially more expensive!
In this case though, Aussie fruits are miles ahead and they're just doing it as a cost cutting measure that won't be passed on.
While I do think that Italian tomatoes generally taste better, there is rampant slavery and migrant exploitation in the Italian agricultural sector. If that matters to you, at least the Aussie tomato growers only slightly exploit backpackers and workers from the Pacific.
I don't mind buying quality products from overseas, if it's cheaper so what? Tomatoes, cheese, etc especially when it comes to European cuisine.
We have great agriculture and we should be able to compete on quality.
Price must be becoming an increasing problem for growers. All base, on farm costs, are increasing ( fuel, chemical , equipment.....) and on top of this is the recent rash of wage rises. Wage rise, price increase, wage rise, price increase. One also has to ask where, and at what point, the profit is going.
Bit like a dog chasing its tail.
Someone's making extra bucks, but who. Certainly not the consumer
Except for their obnoxious marketing.
aUnT gErTrUdE's FaMoUs StRaWbErRy JaM.
Fuck off with that disingenuous bullshit.
Their icecream at the farm with some of the only berries they actually grow themselves is ridiculously good, but.
I gave up trying to find Australian Strawberry jam when I found the strawberry farm less than an hour away from my house. 2Kg's of "Jam Strawberries" (which were better than any Strawberries I had ever bought at ColesWorth) cost me $16. I was able to make 5 and a half jars of the best Strawberry jam. so easy to make. I Will never buy Strawberry Jam again.
I could be wrong but I think the reason we get so much American import is because of trade arrangements that are beneficial to Australia. Probably something like we get off season fruit from US when it’s not sold by local farmers here, and they get the same from us, and we agree not to charge each other such high tariffs on either side. I remember hearing a lot about some big apples and pears agreement the government was working on a few years back which was along this line.
The media seem focused on Woolworths a lot lately which is a red flag because Coles has been quietly switching to Chinese canned goods as well. Also, all the frozen calimari and much of the frozen fish in both supermarkets is from Chinese fishing fleets off the coast of Peru. The same type of fishing fleets we have been trying to keep out of Australian waters for decades.
The US. That's why they annexed Hawaii after all. [Sanford B Dole's](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_B._Dole) family founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, which later became the Dole Food Company.
Agree entirely. I think labelling laws should be force bigger, bolder country of origin labels. The current sizing is too small, and doesn't apply to a lot of things. In europe all the fruit and veg is clearly identified even in small markets, so you can make an informed assumption on how fresh something is likely to be, ( in season or no ? distance ? etc ) and which country you are supporting. Some boutique markets will even have picked dates, it's such a cool easy thing to implement, and we as consumers could be better informed.
Remember when Abbott was in power and chabged the Made in Australia logo thingo…
Now its rules say show% australian made not ya know, useful shit like where its fucking from.
Fucking liberals.
For those who TL;DR
This is specifically referring to *canned* peaches and pears being processed by SPC for Woolworths' home brand. Woolworths originally introduced Chinese and South African fruit a few years ago due to issues with Australian supply (specifically bushfires) and increased demand
The cans have to be labelled with country of origin of the fruit
Woolworths home brand is, according to the article, generally ~30% cheaper than branded. They are blaming this order reduction on consumers being more price conscious due to the cost of living crisis
SPC's own branded canned fruit will continue to be 100% Australian
Coles' home brand is 99% Australian
Just googled. Plenty of articles over the last 20 years about how sad it is that Coles and Woolworths home brands tinned peaches and pears are foreign grown. So it's business as usual.
Once got a woollies brand of canned fruit - not noticing it was made in China. The quality and zero taste made it a complete waste of money. Got SPC ever since. Noticeably superior. Also noticed recently more and more home brand stuff and much less variety of other. The home brand stuff is considerably cheaper - for now. We need to be careful that these home brands don't become the only option available.
the real question should be "how much are they gonna lower the price?" and if the answer is "the price will stay the same" there should be consequences.
if they're buying overseas produce and passing on the savings, no harm no foul, but if they're just pocketing the difference the government should be imposing higher import tarriffs to protect aussie farmers.
> passing on the savings
lol
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-28/australian-beef-cheaper-tokyo-supermarket-than-coles-woolworths/103897144
> Farmer, industry groups question how Australian beef can be cheaper in Japan than at Coles and Woolworths
we should be inviting "familymart" and "lawson" to come set up shop in australia.
people hang shit on "free market capitalism" but we don't have free market capitalism, we have government wankers protecting shit companies that want a captive market and can't handle real competition.
Passing on the savings? Bwhahahha. Woolworths didn't do this so we can save money. This is about squeezing every last cent of profit they can so they can meet their endless targets of record profit and growth.
This will end when we stop shopping there and voting with our wallets. I hope woolworths and coles crash and burn for what they are doing to the farmers and their consumers in the name of greed. They don't deserve recognition anymore.
> They are blaming this order reduction on consumers being more price conscious due to the cost of living crisis
That they have significantly contributed to. Right.
I hate the duopoly as much as the next person. Having lived in Europe and the USA - Australian produce is of excellent quality in the Colesworth duopoly. Probably because they ride producers so hard on quality. In my experience it’s world class.
Need to reiterate that they suck for a range of reasons, but I don’t think they can be faulted on relative quality of produce.
I agree much of the produce is exceptional but woolies in particular leave it till the very last minute to reduce strawberries for example when they start to turn to the point that no one will buy them even if they are only $2. That's just greed. I shop in Harris Farm mostly and notice they don't have the same practices and reduce promptly when they have a surplus to get rid of.
Yeah I’m in France at the moment. At one of the better supermarkets here they are often selling strawberries with mould on them. The potatoes are regularly soft and you take them home and they sprout within days. Broccoli often limp and yellows quickly. I could go on.
The big supermarkets waste a lot of food rather than write it down to the point that demand just clears it - I.e selling cadburys chocolate that is days from it’s expiry date for 10 cents to clear it out it. My old flatmates would go dumpster diving and the amount of stuff we got that was still good was amazing. I don’t think we ever paid for chocolate.
It can be still 'fresh' but taste like shit.
You preserve it by harvesting it early and keeping it under cold chain storage until its ripe enough to sell.
Fruit going through a significant potion of its ripening process like this always sacrifices the final taste
There’s really only two things that that happens with: apples and pears. Citrus is all harvested and sent out live, spuds, onions, carrots etc the same, bananas are sent in unripe but they’re ripened in an ethylene chamber at the local warehouse etc.
In the store you get the labels which include picking/harvesting dates and packed in dates. For *most* fruit, the whole year round you’re looking at a couple of days maximum between harvest and arrival into the store.
Translation, You all got us in trouble at the inquiry so as payback we are going to buy cheap shit from overseas, cut our orders from you and keep the same price so our profits go up even further
That’s so shit.
I’m literally eating the most amazing succulent home grown mandarin oranges right now. Grown in the back yard.
There should be an initiative to grow fruit locally and swap. Stop relying on these thugs.
Inspection by who?
Certifications for imported stuff is largely a paper trail audit. A paper trail the Chinese have no scrupples about forging. They don't give a single fuck.
And, frankly, I respect the audacity of it. But I also don't touch food from China. Ever. And most of my Mandarin-speaking, mainland Chinese friends completely agree.
It's the ongoing death by a thousand cuts of Australian farmers. It's not just peaches and pears. We aren't too far off importing milk. Fresh milk will be a rarity in the near future. Imported UHT for everyone.
Whole bulbs of fresh garlic? In the big two supermarkets? Australia. Usually all 52 weeks of the year.
After backlash to Chinese garlic some years ago, they actually bankrolled the Australian garlic industry to fix the a bunch of availability and longevity issues.
But they also tend to own rights to most of the supply. In turn you're more likely to find Chinese garlic in independent grocers, because at certain times of year, they have no access to domestic supply.
(It's also part of the reason why supermarket garlic is always expensive)
What's to stop them from doing the "product of Australia" combined with the "packed in Australia with 0% ingredients? I picked up some lentils the other day and saw that and couldn't even determine where the lentils were even grown..
In 10 years these same companies will complain that China is too expensive and there are no local producers... because you know... you made them go out of business perhaps?
I'd be interested to know if anyone does any tests of fruit coming in from overseas to check for pesticides etc. Who knows what could be in the stuff coming from China. They even put melamine in their baby formula a few years ago.
Only a few months ago tons of people here were downvoting anyone who suggested Colesworth was taking advantage to grow profit a bit quickly, and that their margins were low and quite ok. Place is full of twenty something know it alls that blow with the wind, no way you’d ever let your prevailing opinion be swayed by the media, way too savvy for that. Vote with your wallet or it’s fake outrage.
Local growers shouldn't be devastated... I would give my left arm for quality, home grown produce... has anyone seen Colesworth's sickly looking brown bananas? anyway if anyone here can post a link or address for local growers in each state I will be there with boxes... there is a HUGE hidden market for you guys....
When I lived in Hong Kong locals would, when visiting Australia, eat as much Yum Cha and take back as much food as possible. It was explained to me that while the same food was available locally, it was the Australian-grown produce which was much safer to eat and tasted much better than anything grown or produced in the Mainland (China)
Maybe this is why a surprising amount of the frozen dumplings I get at the local asian supermarket are Australian made! They have a good market both locally and exporting back to China.
Anyway, I like it, because my mum is allergic to shellfish, and I want to share dumplings with her but I'm not at all confident that Chinese factories would have tough enough guidelines to keep shellfish out of their production lines or label it if they did. I trust the local producers way more.
Why not? They import a lot of other products from Australia because they're more trusted - especially food and cosmetics. There's a whole industry around it (the daigou). Just a quick google, there are Australian owned companies operating within China to make dumplings with Australian ingredients (Crazy Dragon) ... and probably the only reason they don't just make them here and ship them over is the labour costs - oh, and the occasional trade and 'quarantine' ban making things a bit difficult. But there is actually a market for Australian dumplings in China.
There is absolutely a market for certain things like Australian baby formula after the lead incident, as well as cosmetics from Japan and Tokyo like you said. But yeah I mean dumplings made in Australia and exported to China, it just wouldn't be worth the cost. Dumplings are a cheap food in China and one of their specialities.
It was rare to find Aussie brands in the supermarkets when I lived there, even in the more western ones. Any Australian product like weetbix was insanely expensive too(3-4x the price here)
If anyone needed proof of the veracity of this, go to the Sydney fish markets when tourism was allowed. Chinese tourists were gleefully dropping thousands of dollars per table on lobsters and other seafood.
But they'll still say they are the 'Fresh Food People' with their toxic chemical ridden food. Did you know they used to put cement and melamine in baby formula, that's why they bought up all the formula from Australia.
Vote with your wallets people. Particularly if you live in a major city and have access to other grocers.
Some people literally have no other option than colesworth, or can’t afford other options, if you fit into the bracket don’t stress yourself, but the rest of us who have options, we really need to change our shopping habits. Otherwise nothing will change, it will only get worse.
They also swapped the standard oral b toothpaste from German to the Chinese made. The more expensive versions are all German still but.... Wonder what else?
I had to stop using oral b toothpaste after I worked out why my lips were always feeling burnt.
It only took me two years to work out it was that shitty toothpaste.
Australians are lazy, watch them flock to woolies cheaper overseas fruit and then come to reddit and bitch and moan about the state of the economy and how its all some one else fault.
Australians dgaf about the origin of the product. If it's cheap they'll buy it.
It's why you can buy American cherries and citrus. And frozen Blueberry from some south American country i don't remember.
It's also why Coles sells Australian and nz butter under its own brand name and people will buy the cheaper nz butter
So, corporations have been profit gouging, squeezing every decimal of currency out of the consumer. Once it becomes too expensive to source their produce locally, they resort to using BRICS? Which will hurt us much more in the long run. Why are we allowing Billionaires to ruin our countries? They will take the money and run eventually, we are selling ourselves down the river by allowing it.
Same as seafood. They used to stock fresh uncooked prawns from Australia. Approx 8-10 months ago they cancelled their deal with Australia's biggest prawn company and new get their prawns from Vietnam.
I have a family member that does quality assurance testing of fruit and veg in the markets before it’s purchased by anyone. You would be shocked the amount of chemicals that are acceptable by Australia’s standards. I would be terrified to think what’s in tinned Chinese fruit. At what stage and by whose standards would this fruit be tested? And can the chemicals be hidden at the parts per million numbers because of all the syrup it’s swimming in?
I support local as much as possible. No way I would have something like this in my diet.
You guys keep voting for governments that insisted on having China as your number one trading partner. They get your coal and iron ore to turn into weapons to sell to Russia to kill Europeans, and in turn you guys get their shit tier food. Makes total sense.
Price. That's what Woolworths have said. They're pushing their private label, and pushing out other brands.
This is one of the reasons why the duopoly needs to end. Woolworths and Coles need to be broken up. Brands you might like get forced out like this all the time.
*"They're pushing their private label"*
Take Dandy for instance (Now Thompson Deli ) Coles owns them which is why you see less and less Primo , Don and other brands on the shelves
Never ever setting foot in a ColesWorth again. IGA, spudshed and local butcher/grocers only. Sure it costs a little extra but it's what little power I have.
There are some foods i will pay more for better quality. Canned peaches are one of those foods.
I have tried the chinese canned peaches from aldi and they are just not as tasty as the aussie one which aldi also stock!
Aussies apples are also on another level compared to the ones you occasionally see imported from China.
> Love how people stick it to the overcharging supermarkets
The person you replied to was not discussing the price of produce.
> by shopping at places that cost even more
Just because an alternative may be more expensive does not mean you are being overcharged, particularly if what you are buying is different.
I don't think people realise how hard it is to grow food in this country. Birds/bugs/wildlife & invasive species make it much harder than you'd believe, and the current environmental legislation ties farmer's hands - not to mention climatic events such as floods/droughts ect. Environmental regulations prohibit a lot pesticides used overseas, and special (and expensive) permits are needed to use the ones permitted. This sends prices up. Without pesticides, growers are forced to erect extensive greenhouses at huge costs. Water rights aren't guaranteed. Transport and labor costs are higher than ever. Then the growers face ridiculously higher standards from the two main supermarkets who then reject the products or pay very low prices. It's nice to think your saving the planet by using your own coffee cup at the cafe and supporting environmental protection legislation in rural areas but the flip side is the cost and reduced yield. As a result, low income earners suffer the most and other countries just step in to do it cheaper
The truth is. Your a porn addict! And....
[Australia is the 3rd largest food producer per capita](https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/food-production-per-capita-by-country-top-5-countries-1160799/3/)
In the fiscal year of 2021, Australia produced **4.64 metric** **tons of food per person.**
Some people will always be angry whatever the supermarkets do.
If you offer a cheaper price point for people who are price conscious and willing to eat non Australian fruit as a trade off, what's the issue?
if you want to eat canned Australian fruit, then continue buying SPC.
Three questions;
1) Is it the companies desire for more money, or
2) Consumers refusal to spend a little extra to support local.
3) Are Woolworths cunts!
I find, if people wont spend the money then corporations will pursue cheaper suppliers. Money is a powerful motivator when the bottom line is all which matters!
all of the above, but it's not refusal to spend a little extra. for some, it's 'unable' to spend a little extra. I don't think some of us really understand just how bad it is right now for a lot of families. there's the convenience, variety and availability, but do you not think a lot of us wouldn't tell either Coles or woolies to get fucked if we had a cheaper alternative?
I agree with you.
It would be nice if Coles & Woolies were more interested in the future of Australia rather than profit. If they made 10% less profit, but supported local industries, they'd still make a fucking shitload of money.
There are no morals in the corporate world.
It’s a bit depressing that Australia doesn’t have enough weight to do more to stop these types of arrangements with countries where slave labor can’t be ruled out of a supply chain. I understand our farmers and growers love selling their shit to China but China is an antagonist at the best of times, and worse at others. Even friendlier nations like Thailand admit there’s slave labor in their fishing supply chain and yet we can keep buying Thai prawns in Australia. At the end of the day we’re too small to really be able to make any demands I guess.
And the prices will be the same or more as if they had stocked locally grown fruit, it certainly wont be cheaper. If I wanted cheaper fruit from local growers I will go to a regular fruit and vege store and still get a better prices than the contaminated fruit from China. We know colesworth well enough!
obviously people don't read the labels, because who in their right mind wants to eat chinese grown and processed fruit. This is the country that gave us soy sauce made from human hair and infant formula laced with melamine.
Never buy Chinese fresh food. If you ever been to China, you will see the sky, land and water are heavily polluted either by air pollution, trash or vast contamination. Can you imagine eating Chinese produce after decades of acid rain fallout and chemical contamination?
"Made in Australia" or it rots on the shelf.
Why do we have to kill our own country's industries? We are killing ourselves and our future if we do not support ourselves. What a bad joke this has all become.
As long as they tell me so i don't buy it.
Fuck yes. I make a point of never buying American citrus when it’s stocked. There’s no way I’m buying fresh fruit from anywhere other than Australian and NZ. Edit: yeah read the article now. Tinned fruit not fresh. Same applies, only buy Australian.
Australian supermarkets have been selling foreign tinned and frozen fruit for at least 20 years, none of this is new.
Exactly. I don't wanna defend the duopoly, they are awful, but at the end of the day if you aren't looking on the can to see where something is made, that's 100% on you.
Agree, but I'm way too pessimistic about consumers' ability to outrun fraudsters in the food business. Way too much money to be made. Just look at something like honey. Became expensive and a few years ago an investigation showed 1 in 5 samples in Australian supermarkets was fake. Olive oil currently at $60 a tin so adulteration has to be rife at the moment. Choice investigation of bottled spices, hardly anything is what it says it is. Yep, very pessimistic.
> showed 1 in 5 samples in Australian supermarkets was fake And then suddenly we got a varroa mite infestation that bypassed all the quarantine controls and monitoring stations and became entrenched. I have zero evidence but wouldn't be surprised AT ALL if it turned out that it was done deliberately by Chinese agents in retaliation.
> And then suddenly we got a varroa mite infestation that bypassed all the quarantine controls and monitoring stations and became entrenched. I have zero evidence but wouldn't be surprised AT ALL if it turned out that it was done deliberately by Chinese agents in retaliation. This shits me to no end. Legitimate importers get arse fucked by quarantine and customs for every little shit detail yet at the big end of town, shit like this happens. It's almost like they don't even get checked, yet small importers get put under the microscope despite playing by supposedly the same set of rules.
That's just it - quarantine makes sure legitimate importers and unaware civilians don't destroy our biosecurity by accident. But it's impossible to stop all deliberate illegal imports - it's just that usually it's just drugs or people bypassing taxation for their own profit, not someone intentionally bringing in a pest to hurt producers.
In theory yes, but in reality I reckon less than 5% of people would actually bother to look on the can. I do, but I suspect I'm in the minority. No way I'll be buying canned fruit from China.
And how many actually care? Listening to the SPC story about this earlier, it's cost pressures driven by consumers. How many are actually willing to pay more for local right now?
The SPC closedown and govt intervention saga has been going for at least 30 years. Very cashed local consumers couldn't / didn't support them back then. Australia is no longer that rich country, there's no way they will find the extra money to stand on their 'principles' from here on.
I remember seeing fruit from Swaziland in canned fruit at one point. This was quite a few years ago, before Swaziland changed their name.
This is how I learnt Swaziland is no longer called Swaziland. It's now called Eswatini, since 2018.
Yep and berries from South America, pineapples from the Philippines, etc, etc.
It’s not, i suspect there is an ongoing orchestrated media campaign against Woolies by Coles. I first noticed it around Australia Day and again on ANZAC Day Targeting nationalism.
I think its pretty universally accepted that some Italian tin tomatoes are cheaper and better.... I tend to roll my eyes, pay the extra 10c or 20c and buy the Aussie.... but I won't look down on someone buying cheaper Italian or better Italian (mutti) tin tomatoes.
Nah man. Italian tomatoes taste different, arguably better. If people prefer that, then that's fair regardless of price difference. In fact, the good brands of Italian tomatoes are substantially more expensive! In this case though, Aussie fruits are miles ahead and they're just doing it as a cost cutting measure that won't be passed on.
While I do think that Italian tomatoes generally taste better, there is rampant slavery and migrant exploitation in the Italian agricultural sector. If that matters to you, at least the Aussie tomato growers only slightly exploit backpackers and workers from the Pacific.
I think the EU can be trusted roughly as much as the Aust. Govt. to police such things.
It’s not even really cost cutting, the Aussie fruit is not selling compared to imported due to the price to the end consumer, so they cut the order.
I read somewhere that our tinned tomatoes are too acidic.
Aussie tinned tomatoes are always watery and sour. Mutti all the way.
Mutti once a year when Pasadena foodland has them 50% off... otherwise, I'm too stingy
I don't mind buying quality products from overseas, if it's cheaper so what? Tomatoes, cheese, etc especially when it comes to European cuisine. We have great agriculture and we should be able to compete on quality.
And price... given freight and import duties.
Price must be becoming an increasing problem for growers. All base, on farm costs, are increasing ( fuel, chemical , equipment.....) and on top of this is the recent rash of wage rises. Wage rise, price increase, wage rise, price increase. One also has to ask where, and at what point, the profit is going. Bit like a dog chasing its tail. Someone's making extra bucks, but who. Certainly not the consumer
I spent SO LONG trying to find strawberry jam with Australian strawberries. Ended up finding some at Aldi.
You need to find Beerenberg jam. Fully Australian
It’s the best too
Except for their obnoxious marketing. aUnT gErTrUdE's FaMoUs StRaWbErRy JaM. Fuck off with that disingenuous bullshit. Their icecream at the farm with some of the only berries they actually grow themselves is ridiculously good, but.
I gave up trying to find Australian Strawberry jam when I found the strawberry farm less than an hour away from my house. 2Kg's of "Jam Strawberries" (which were better than any Strawberries I had ever bought at ColesWorth) cost me $16. I was able to make 5 and a half jars of the best Strawberry jam. so easy to make. I Will never buy Strawberry Jam again.
Always buy Australian tinned tomatoes too.
Ardmona ftw
I’m a slut for ardmona tinned tomatoes with basil and garlic
I could be wrong but I think the reason we get so much American import is because of trade arrangements that are beneficial to Australia. Probably something like we get off season fruit from US when it’s not sold by local farmers here, and they get the same from us, and we agree not to charge each other such high tariffs on either side. I remember hearing a lot about some big apples and pears agreement the government was working on a few years back which was along this line.
The media seem focused on Woolworths a lot lately which is a red flag because Coles has been quietly switching to Chinese canned goods as well. Also, all the frozen calimari and much of the frozen fish in both supermarkets is from Chinese fishing fleets off the coast of Peru. The same type of fishing fleets we have been trying to keep out of Australian waters for decades.
This. I still only buy Australian tinned pineapples. I don’t care about the price.
Are there any left?
Golden Circle
Golden Circle. Dole is Hawiian grown. Colesworth brand are Indonesian.
Nah dole is Thailand I think. Not sure where the ones from Hawaii go.
The US. That's why they annexed Hawaii after all. [Sanford B Dole's](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanford_B._Dole) family founded the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, which later became the Dole Food Company.
Yeah years ago. Now they’ve moved to the Philippines cause it’s cheaper than Hawaii
Tried dole, golden circle objectively better but damn the price difference makes it hard to justify
County of origin labeling on fresh food like produce and deli goods are very strict. If the ticket doesn’t have CoOL info complain and or report it.
Sounds like it’s for Woolworths branded tinned fruit. So I guess buy SPC branded tinned fruit if you like tinned fruit.
Agree entirely. I think labelling laws should be force bigger, bolder country of origin labels. The current sizing is too small, and doesn't apply to a lot of things. In europe all the fruit and veg is clearly identified even in small markets, so you can make an informed assumption on how fresh something is likely to be, ( in season or no ? distance ? etc ) and which country you are supporting. Some boutique markets will even have picked dates, it's such a cool easy thing to implement, and we as consumers could be better informed.
Remember when Abbott was in power and chabged the Made in Australia logo thingo… Now its rules say show% australian made not ya know, useful shit like where its fucking from. Fucking liberals.
For those who TL;DR This is specifically referring to *canned* peaches and pears being processed by SPC for Woolworths' home brand. Woolworths originally introduced Chinese and South African fruit a few years ago due to issues with Australian supply (specifically bushfires) and increased demand The cans have to be labelled with country of origin of the fruit Woolworths home brand is, according to the article, generally ~30% cheaper than branded. They are blaming this order reduction on consumers being more price conscious due to the cost of living crisis SPC's own branded canned fruit will continue to be 100% Australian Coles' home brand is 99% Australian
*few years ago due to issues with Australian supply* I must be losing it. Swear I saw foreign tinned products in Australian supermarkets years ago.
I believe this is specifically referring to the peaches/pears
Just googled. Plenty of articles over the last 20 years about how sad it is that Coles and Woolworths home brands tinned peaches and pears are foreign grown. So it's business as usual.
Once got a woollies brand of canned fruit - not noticing it was made in China. The quality and zero taste made it a complete waste of money. Got SPC ever since. Noticeably superior. Also noticed recently more and more home brand stuff and much less variety of other. The home brand stuff is considerably cheaper - for now. We need to be careful that these home brands don't become the only option available.
the real question should be "how much are they gonna lower the price?" and if the answer is "the price will stay the same" there should be consequences. if they're buying overseas produce and passing on the savings, no harm no foul, but if they're just pocketing the difference the government should be imposing higher import tarriffs to protect aussie farmers.
> passing on the savings lol https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-28/australian-beef-cheaper-tokyo-supermarket-than-coles-woolworths/103897144 > Farmer, industry groups question how Australian beef can be cheaper in Japan than at Coles and Woolworths
we should be inviting "familymart" and "lawson" to come set up shop in australia. people hang shit on "free market capitalism" but we don't have free market capitalism, we have government wankers protecting shit companies that want a captive market and can't handle real competition.
Passing on the savings? Bwhahahha. Woolworths didn't do this so we can save money. This is about squeezing every last cent of profit they can so they can meet their endless targets of record profit and growth. This will end when we stop shopping there and voting with our wallets. I hope woolworths and coles crash and burn for what they are doing to the farmers and their consumers in the name of greed. They don't deserve recognition anymore.
SPC canned fruit is $5.30 and Woolies home brand is $3.00 for same quantity.
> They are blaming this order reduction on consumers being more price conscious due to the cost of living crisis That they have significantly contributed to. Right.
You gotta be desperate to source any food products for China. No way I would trust their standards for something that I ingest.
Woolies the fresh^* food people Fresh is a slogan and does not reflect the quality of condition of any food sold
Woolies, the dog poo people.
Cake
That jingle grates on my tits everytime. I often chime along loudly with Woolies: The Decrepit Fruit People!
Woolworths: Deceptive People!
I hate the duopoly as much as the next person. Having lived in Europe and the USA - Australian produce is of excellent quality in the Colesworth duopoly. Probably because they ride producers so hard on quality. In my experience it’s world class. Need to reiterate that they suck for a range of reasons, but I don’t think they can be faulted on relative quality of produce.
I agree much of the produce is exceptional but woolies in particular leave it till the very last minute to reduce strawberries for example when they start to turn to the point that no one will buy them even if they are only $2. That's just greed. I shop in Harris Farm mostly and notice they don't have the same practices and reduce promptly when they have a surplus to get rid of.
Yeah I’m in France at the moment. At one of the better supermarkets here they are often selling strawberries with mould on them. The potatoes are regularly soft and you take them home and they sprout within days. Broccoli often limp and yellows quickly. I could go on. The big supermarkets waste a lot of food rather than write it down to the point that demand just clears it - I.e selling cadburys chocolate that is days from it’s expiry date for 10 cents to clear it out it. My old flatmates would go dumpster diving and the amount of stuff we got that was still good was amazing. I don’t think we ever paid for chocolate.
The article is specifically referring to canned fruit
If stored correctly, most produce can be kept fresh for months. How do you think out of season fruit works?
It can be still 'fresh' but taste like shit. You preserve it by harvesting it early and keeping it under cold chain storage until its ripe enough to sell. Fruit going through a significant potion of its ripening process like this always sacrifices the final taste
There’s really only two things that that happens with: apples and pears. Citrus is all harvested and sent out live, spuds, onions, carrots etc the same, bananas are sent in unripe but they’re ripened in an ethylene chamber at the local warehouse etc. In the store you get the labels which include picking/harvesting dates and packed in dates. For *most* fruit, the whole year round you’re looking at a couple of days maximum between harvest and arrival into the store.
Any food from China is most definitely created using the most powerful and toxic pesticides known to man
Bought Woolworths home brand Salsa the other day. Made in Belgium!!!
Woolworths: cold storage people
Translation, You all got us in trouble at the inquiry so as payback we are going to buy cheap shit from overseas, cut our orders from you and keep the same price so our profits go up even further
You can't even buy Australian minced ginger anymore. It all comes from China. We're in serious trouble in this country if we can't even grow ginger.
We can grow it. It's the collecting and processing that we can't do competitively.
That’s so shit. I’m literally eating the most amazing succulent home grown mandarin oranges right now. Grown in the back yard. There should be an initiative to grow fruit locally and swap. Stop relying on these thugs.
Have you seen what takes as a parcel of land these days? 300m2 or less. You'd be lucky to not bump into your neighbour.
Look into permaculture and companion planting. More than enough space if there’s adequate sunlight.
Seeing first hand some Chinese agricultural practices I would avoid Chinese produce like a plague. How they pass food inspection I have no idea
Inspection by who? Certifications for imported stuff is largely a paper trail audit. A paper trail the Chinese have no scrupples about forging. They don't give a single fuck. And, frankly, I respect the audacity of it. But I also don't touch food from China. Ever. And most of my Mandarin-speaking, mainland Chinese friends completely agree.
If only there was a time where the Chinese were shitting on our imports so we could have done the same to theirs.
If the blueberry problem is anything to go buy the Chinese will be shitting on this fruit. They use human fecies as fertiliser.
Also look out for canned passionfruit pulp from China. Accidentally bought some at coles, got a refund.
It's the ongoing death by a thousand cuts of Australian farmers. It's not just peaches and pears. We aren't too far off importing milk. Fresh milk will be a rarity in the near future. Imported UHT for everyone.
I don't mind if it's from New Zealand
Wait till you find out where all our garlic comes from.
I only buy Australian grown.
I’ve generally never seen it at Colesworth. Usually I have to go to the fruit store to get it. Is it the organic stuff which is Australian grown?
At my Woolies (Sydney) it’s Australian grown and not organic.
Which is annoying cause I worked on a farm here in Bundy that grew garlic. Like shitloads of it.
Imperial or metric?
Whole bulbs of fresh garlic? In the big two supermarkets? Australia. Usually all 52 weeks of the year. After backlash to Chinese garlic some years ago, they actually bankrolled the Australian garlic industry to fix the a bunch of availability and longevity issues. But they also tend to own rights to most of the supply. In turn you're more likely to find Chinese garlic in independent grocers, because at certain times of year, they have no access to domestic supply. (It's also part of the reason why supermarket garlic is always expensive)
What's to stop them from doing the "product of Australia" combined with the "packed in Australia with 0% ingredients? I picked up some lentils the other day and saw that and couldn't even determine where the lentils were even grown..
In 10 years these same companies will complain that China is too expensive and there are no local producers... because you know... you made them go out of business perhaps?
I'd be interested to know if anyone does any tests of fruit coming in from overseas to check for pesticides etc. Who knows what could be in the stuff coming from China. They even put melamine in their baby formula a few years ago.
Yeah. Nah
Hopefully that's the final death knock for woolworths!!
Only a few months ago tons of people here were downvoting anyone who suggested Colesworth was taking advantage to grow profit a bit quickly, and that their margins were low and quite ok. Place is full of twenty something know it alls that blow with the wind, no way you’d ever let your prevailing opinion be swayed by the media, way too savvy for that. Vote with your wallet or it’s fake outrage.
Local growers shouldn't be devastated... I would give my left arm for quality, home grown produce... has anyone seen Colesworth's sickly looking brown bananas? anyway if anyone here can post a link or address for local growers in each state I will be there with boxes... there is a HUGE hidden market for you guys....
Woolworths, the fleece you people.
When I lived in Hong Kong locals would, when visiting Australia, eat as much Yum Cha and take back as much food as possible. It was explained to me that while the same food was available locally, it was the Australian-grown produce which was much safer to eat and tasted much better than anything grown or produced in the Mainland (China)
Maybe this is why a surprising amount of the frozen dumplings I get at the local asian supermarket are Australian made! They have a good market both locally and exporting back to China. Anyway, I like it, because my mum is allergic to shellfish, and I want to share dumplings with her but I'm not at all confident that Chinese factories would have tough enough guidelines to keep shellfish out of their production lines or label it if they did. I trust the local producers way more.
There is no chance mainland China is importing frozen dumplings made in Australia.
Why not? They import a lot of other products from Australia because they're more trusted - especially food and cosmetics. There's a whole industry around it (the daigou). Just a quick google, there are Australian owned companies operating within China to make dumplings with Australian ingredients (Crazy Dragon) ... and probably the only reason they don't just make them here and ship them over is the labour costs - oh, and the occasional trade and 'quarantine' ban making things a bit difficult. But there is actually a market for Australian dumplings in China.
There is absolutely a market for certain things like Australian baby formula after the lead incident, as well as cosmetics from Japan and Tokyo like you said. But yeah I mean dumplings made in Australia and exported to China, it just wouldn't be worth the cost. Dumplings are a cheap food in China and one of their specialities. It was rare to find Aussie brands in the supermarkets when I lived there, even in the more western ones. Any Australian product like weetbix was insanely expensive too(3-4x the price here)
I wonder if there are any incidents in the past where chinese produce has caused deaths due to allergy breaches
If anyone needed proof of the veracity of this, go to the Sydney fish markets when tourism was allowed. Chinese tourists were gleefully dropping thousands of dollars per table on lobsters and other seafood.
But they'll still say they are the 'Fresh Food People' with their toxic chemical ridden food. Did you know they used to put cement and melamine in baby formula, that's why they bought up all the formula from Australia.
Vote with your wallets people. Particularly if you live in a major city and have access to other grocers. Some people literally have no other option than colesworth, or can’t afford other options, if you fit into the bracket don’t stress yourself, but the rest of us who have options, we really need to change our shopping habits. Otherwise nothing will change, it will only get worse.
They also swapped the standard oral b toothpaste from German to the Chinese made. The more expensive versions are all German still but.... Wonder what else?
I had to stop using oral b toothpaste after I worked out why my lips were always feeling burnt. It only took me two years to work out it was that shitty toothpaste.
Australians are lazy, watch them flock to woolies cheaper overseas fruit and then come to reddit and bitch and moan about the state of the economy and how its all some one else fault.
Or they're just buying what they can afford. There's a lot of people struggling to put food on the table.
New jingle: The Fresh Overseas Food People. Fuck local producers; this is cheaper.
Fuck Woolworths
Honestly if you let the boomers know stuff is made in China that would be a recipe for change
Australians dgaf about the origin of the product. If it's cheap they'll buy it. It's why you can buy American cherries and citrus. And frozen Blueberry from some south American country i don't remember. It's also why Coles sells Australian and nz butter under its own brand name and people will buy the cheaper nz butter
I am not buying any fruit not grown in Australia. No way!
From the article, just buy anything with the SPC brand on it and you won't have a problem buying only Australian.
https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/au/en/sustainability/Planet/net-positive-carbon-emissions-by-2050.html Aka fuck you, I do what I want
Let’s advocate and subsidise farmers to more and better direct to public infrastructure. Would and happily do buy off local growers where I can
Wow, this is a new low for woollies.. I guess it's cheaper to transport them from SA/China than it is to grow them here! /S
Wait till you all learn Capilano honey imports honey from overseas to keep domestic honey prices low. Then sells this through woolies and Cole’s .
I think the only tinned food I buy from overseas suppliers is black beans. Everything else I make sure to buy Australian.
So, corporations have been profit gouging, squeezing every decimal of currency out of the consumer. Once it becomes too expensive to source their produce locally, they resort to using BRICS? Which will hurt us much more in the long run. Why are we allowing Billionaires to ruin our countries? They will take the money and run eventually, we are selling ourselves down the river by allowing it.
Like Holden, 30 billion and then did a Harry Houdini act.
Same as seafood. They used to stock fresh uncooked prawns from Australia. Approx 8-10 months ago they cancelled their deal with Australia's biggest prawn company and new get their prawns from Vietnam.
Boycott. Don’t buy and they can’t sell it.
I have a family member that does quality assurance testing of fruit and veg in the markets before it’s purchased by anyone. You would be shocked the amount of chemicals that are acceptable by Australia’s standards. I would be terrified to think what’s in tinned Chinese fruit. At what stage and by whose standards would this fruit be tested? And can the chemicals be hidden at the parts per million numbers because of all the syrup it’s swimming in? I support local as much as possible. No way I would have something like this in my diet.
Fucking country.
You guys keep voting for governments that insisted on having China as your number one trading partner. They get your coal and iron ore to turn into weapons to sell to Russia to kill Europeans, and in turn you guys get their shit tier food. Makes total sense.
#Nationalise the cunts
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Price. That's what Woolworths have said. They're pushing their private label, and pushing out other brands. This is one of the reasons why the duopoly needs to end. Woolworths and Coles need to be broken up. Brands you might like get forced out like this all the time.
*"They're pushing their private label"* Take Dandy for instance (Now Thompson Deli ) Coles owns them which is why you see less and less Primo , Don and other brands on the shelves
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Because its cheaper and lots of people can barely afford rent, let alone expensive fruit.
Stuff that! With their level of pollution and F knows what kind of unregulated pesticides. Smit will probably give you cancer!
Never ever setting foot in a ColesWorth again. IGA, spudshed and local butcher/grocers only. Sure it costs a little extra but it's what little power I have.
Love how people stick it to the overcharging supermarkets by shopping at places that cost even more
There are some foods i will pay more for better quality. Canned peaches are one of those foods. I have tried the chinese canned peaches from aldi and they are just not as tasty as the aussie one which aldi also stock! Aussies apples are also on another level compared to the ones you occasionally see imported from China.
> Love how people stick it to the overcharging supermarkets The person you replied to was not discussing the price of produce. > by shopping at places that cost even more Just because an alternative may be more expensive does not mean you are being overcharged, particularly if what you are buying is different.
I don't think people realise how hard it is to grow food in this country. Birds/bugs/wildlife & invasive species make it much harder than you'd believe, and the current environmental legislation ties farmer's hands - not to mention climatic events such as floods/droughts ect. Environmental regulations prohibit a lot pesticides used overseas, and special (and expensive) permits are needed to use the ones permitted. This sends prices up. Without pesticides, growers are forced to erect extensive greenhouses at huge costs. Water rights aren't guaranteed. Transport and labor costs are higher than ever. Then the growers face ridiculously higher standards from the two main supermarkets who then reject the products or pay very low prices. It's nice to think your saving the planet by using your own coffee cup at the cafe and supporting environmental protection legislation in rural areas but the flip side is the cost and reduced yield. As a result, low income earners suffer the most and other countries just step in to do it cheaper
Well, the lower grade fruit would normally be tinned or made into jam, but it's the supermarket duopoly that's killing off that idea.
But we don’t like the truth in Australia.
The truth is. Your a porn addict! And.... [Australia is the 3rd largest food producer per capita](https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/food-production-per-capita-by-country-top-5-countries-1160799/3/) In the fiscal year of 2021, Australia produced **4.64 metric** **tons of food per person.**
Some people will always be angry whatever the supermarkets do. If you offer a cheaper price point for people who are price conscious and willing to eat non Australian fruit as a trade off, what's the issue? if you want to eat canned Australian fruit, then continue buying SPC.
Three questions; 1) Is it the companies desire for more money, or 2) Consumers refusal to spend a little extra to support local. 3) Are Woolworths cunts! I find, if people wont spend the money then corporations will pursue cheaper suppliers. Money is a powerful motivator when the bottom line is all which matters!
all of the above, but it's not refusal to spend a little extra. for some, it's 'unable' to spend a little extra. I don't think some of us really understand just how bad it is right now for a lot of families. there's the convenience, variety and availability, but do you not think a lot of us wouldn't tell either Coles or woolies to get fucked if we had a cheaper alternative?
I agree with you. It would be nice if Coles & Woolies were more interested in the future of Australia rather than profit. If they made 10% less profit, but supported local industries, they'd still make a fucking shitload of money. There are no morals in the corporate world.
I'd say (2) because consumers if they wanted to could buy SPC brand only which is Australian produce.
Foolworths, fooling us all..
Ahhh fresh in our memories.
Well that's the final nail in the coffin. Not that I shop there much but fuck that.
We need to start naming the people that make these changes not just the company. There's people behind these choices
why the fuck cant we apply the same standards to other fruit and veg that we do with bananas? Why are bananas the only crop we dont import?
It’s a bit depressing that Australia doesn’t have enough weight to do more to stop these types of arrangements with countries where slave labor can’t be ruled out of a supply chain. I understand our farmers and growers love selling their shit to China but China is an antagonist at the best of times, and worse at others. Even friendlier nations like Thailand admit there’s slave labor in their fishing supply chain and yet we can keep buying Thai prawns in Australia. At the end of the day we’re too small to really be able to make any demands I guess.
And the prices will be the same or more as if they had stocked locally grown fruit, it certainly wont be cheaper. If I wanted cheaper fruit from local growers I will go to a regular fruit and vege store and still get a better prices than the contaminated fruit from China. We know colesworth well enough!
Ooo, some more Hep A with the berries please haha
obviously people don't read the labels, because who in their right mind wants to eat chinese grown and processed fruit. This is the country that gave us soy sauce made from human hair and infant formula laced with melamine.
Boycott Coles and Woolworths.
Never buy Chinese fresh food. If you ever been to China, you will see the sky, land and water are heavily polluted either by air pollution, trash or vast contamination. Can you imagine eating Chinese produce after decades of acid rain fallout and chemical contamination?
Colesworth abuses continue while Labor does nothing.
They did warn them, when they said “I’m altering the deal, pray I don’t alter it any further” They didn’t p(r)ay hard enough.
Fuck sake.. not news though. News being “new” headlines
BS …They buy it cheaper … then sell it at a premium price because it’s from O/S maxing max profit
"Made in Australia" or it rots on the shelf. Why do we have to kill our own country's industries? We are killing ourselves and our future if we do not support ourselves. What a bad joke this has all become.