Rodney Stevens
A coalition of Australian owned businesses led by the Northern Rivers own dairy company Norco are calling for the iconic kangaroo in a triangle “Australian Made” logo to be made clearer to display Australian Made and Australian Owned companies.
129-year-old dairy company Norco commissioned a survey of more than 1000 people which found more than half of consumers were guided by the Australian Made logo.
The Australian Made logo is administered by the Australian Made Campaign Limited, a not-for-profit company established in 1999 by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and in 2016 during food labelling law reforms, the kangaroo logo was incorporated into the new country-of-origin labelling.
The logo has several versions:
Australian Made – the product underwent its last substantial transformation in Australia.
Australian Grown – all of the products significant ingredients have been grown in Australia and all or nearly all of the processing was done in Australia.
Australian Grown and Owned – businesses can choose to include “and Owned” with the relevant country-of-origin claim for their products.
Norco CEO Michael Hampson said the company was concerned that consumers thought they were supporting Australian-owned businesses when they buy products with the Australian Made logo, which is not always the case.
“Eighty-one per-cent of consumers are buying a product that they believe is Australian-owned by it’s actually foreign owned,” he told ABC North Coast.
“Three quarters of consumers believe that country of ownership should be on the food labels they buy on the supermarket shelves to take this confusion out when they’re making their purchase decisions.”
So, Norco formed a coalition with prominent Australian Owned and Made businesses including Sanitarium Health Food Company, Shepparton Preserving Company SPC, Sunshine Sugar, and nut spread and snack food company Mayvers Foods, calling for clearer labelling on supermarket grocery products.
Norco’s survey found that only 1 in 10 shoppers did their own research on the country of origin of products.
Under Australian Consumer Law there are no requirements for businesses to provide specific information on their country of ownership, but businesses may voluntarily choose to disclose this information, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said.
When Norco conducted the research in May 2024 across Australia, they found 30 per-cent of respondents had increased their support for Australian brands over the past two years, even if they are more expensive.
But Mr Hampson said not all Australian made and owned products cost more.
“If you look at the supermarket shelves there’s a lot of Australian-owned company’s products are in larger pack sizes and selling for a lower per unit shelf price,” he said.
Mr Hampson said currently foreign-owned companies can use the Australian Made logo if the product was grown, made, or produced in Australia.
“Two-thirds of consumers say that they would actively support more 100 per cent Australian-owned businesses if that information was readily available,” he said.