Brand thieves and counterfeit traders on rise
Jan Davis says genuine Aussie producers are having their reputations smeared
MOST of us have come across cheap knock-off copies of big brands — Louis Vuitton handbags, Ralph Lauren polo shirts, Rolex watches, whatever.
Maybe you have even succumbed to temptation After all, no one is really being harmed, are they?
Counterfeiting by low-cost producers in Third World markets has been a challenge to major corporations and fashion houses for decades.
However, fashion goods are not the only targets for brand cheats. In recent years, food fraud has become common.
Australia enjoys positive perceptions in rapidly growing Asian markets as a clean and green producer of wholesome, natural and trustworthy food. The upside is opportunities in export markets for Australian farmers and food producers to take advantage of strong demand for our products and, in many cases, to achieve a significant price premium. The downside is unscrupulous traders cash in by muscling in with copies of many of our well-known brands.
Some time ago, a wine labelled “Benfold” in the familiar style of the wellknown Penfold’s brand became popular in Asian markets. At a quick glance, it was easy to miss the difference.
A Chinese online retailer set up a website from Sydney, passing off Chilean cherries in fake-printed Chinese boxes to Shanghai customers as a wellknown brand of Tasmanian-grown cherries.
Victorian farmer David Blackmore produces small quantities of Wagyu beef that take pride of place on the menu of high-end eateries around the globe. Quite by accident, he discovered a Chinese company had been offered daily deliveries of more product in a week than his farm produced in a month.
However, counterfeiting is not unexpected in some markets, so much so that an Australian counterfeit specialist warned recently: “For any Australian company that wants to sell in China, the message is simple. You will be copied. Your trademark will be copied. Your intellectual property will be copied. Just accept it as fact.”
For years, Nile perch has been passed off as Australian barramundi; generic green leaves have been marketed as oregano; and prawns from Thailand and Vietnam have been sold as local product. This can include deliberate fake country of origin information, for example, labelling snow peas from Nigeria as locally grown.
The issue is of such concern in the seafood industry that national naming standards have been introduced. Clear labelling and increased traceability of seafood provides consumers with the information needed to choose fish with confidence and avoid those that are contaminated, overfished, or caught using destructive techniques.
The growing incidence of menu fraud is worse because it is a cynical exploitation of farmers by those who should know better. Menu fraud happens when restaurants and chefs take advantage of rising consumer interest in food provenance to trade off the reputations of well-known producers with recognised brands.
Examples of this include passing off commodity-grade beef as our own premium King Island product, or falsely labelling imported saffron or truffles as Tassie-grown.
Customers pay premium prices for an inferior or commodity product; restaurants and food manufacturers enjoy big margins; and farmers producing boutique highquality, high-cost food are ripped off. Their good name is traded on with no financial return, and their reputation is sullied by inferior produce.
Calling out cheats is not just about protecting reputations and profits. It is about maintaining the brand integrity, and food health and safety. The ramifications if someone got sick or died from a counterfeit product would be huge. No doubt those affected would sue, and regulators would come down on the legitimate producer like a ton of bricks. Even if they could prove the offending products were fakes, the bad publicity could destroy them.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery. However, when it comes to fabulous Aussie food, it is simply theft. We need to take every measure to ensure our brands and our producers are protected from opportunists trying to cash in on their hard work.