Saturday 20 August 2011

buying Australian made in Australia

In the past I was never one to buy Australian made unless it also happened to be what I wanted. Years of living in Finland with my family who are stout "buy local" products combined with my personal views on environment and sustainablity (that would be the three pillars of sustainable development as outlined in the Johannesburg convention of 2002) have led me to feel that I should (unless there is an overwhelming case against it) prefer to purchase as much Australian product as I can, especially food items.

So since returning to Australia I have been trying to do just that (just as we bought Finnish food in Finland).

The problem is that its increasingly difficult to do.

Today while shopping I noticed that my normal brand of Orange Juice has changed from being 100% Australian oranges to
- not mentioning it (and having in the fine print "made from local and imported ingredients") to
- now having an attempted apology printed on the label. The text reads "Due to an orange shortage in Australia ... bla bla"

Well that's strange isn't it, as just a few days ago on the ABC Radio I heard representatives from the Orange growers saying that due to the dollar being so high now it was almost impossible for them to shift their product.

So it seems that there is actually a glut of Orange product on the market in Australia; but these guys are saying there is an orange shortage in Australia?

They can't both be right ... Hmmm ...

I thought I'd link to that particular program here which has a mp3 podcast associated with it for you to download and listen.

So if you would prefer to buy your OJ from our free trade partner across the pacific (who isn't buying ours I bet) then go for it, but mean time I'm really pissed off with Nudie for trying to pull this stunt off. Clearly its aimed at increasing their profit.

Sorry guys but if I wanted to buy cheap OJ I'd buy one of the cheap brands, not pay premium prices for a product which pretends to support our farmers and our economy and gives jobs to Australians.

So the bottom line is : read the labels carefully as there are assholes out there trying to trick you into buying their product.


United Nations. (2002). Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. New York: United Nations.

4 comments:

writergenn said...

Maybe this particular juice company still thinks it's ok to be economical with the truth, despite the Federal Court's best efforts to encourage them otherwise: http://www.news.com.au/features/nudie-juice-content-not-so-rosy/story-e6frfl49-1111116695355

Anonymous said...

The point you’re making is a massive issue that we should rightly going nuts about both from the viewpoint of consumers expecting honesty in products allowing us to make informed choices, and as producers being shafted by primary products being dumped on our markets

BuyAustralianMade said...

Funny you should write this post about Nudie, I saw that comment for the first time just the other day. I couldn't believe what I was reading that "Due to a shortage of oranges in Australian". The Australian orange season is the best one for years. There are other orange juices available that are made from 100% Aussie grown oranges, I for one will be buying those rather than Nudie in the future.

obakesan said...

@BuyAustralianMade; yes, that's exactly how I feel. They've violated my trust enough and there are plenty of other brands. If they felt so little about their customers and about their role in the community then as far as I am concerned they can go broke and get out of business.