Reputation soars and fakes follow
Food fraud is taking a bite out of our huge appeal to Asian markets, says Jan Davis
AUSTRALIA enjoys positive perceptions in rapidly growing Asian markets as a clean and green producer of wholesome, natural and trustworthy food products — and consumers are willing to pay a premium for this.
New figures confirm the Chinese appetite for beef has reached unprecedented levels. Australian beef exports to China are up 73 per cent on last year, making it our biggest export market. And money is no object, with Chinese consumers prepared to pay hundreds of dollars a kilogram for the right cut of steak from a country they trust. However, often they don’t get what they think they’re buying.
Research by PricewaterhouseCoo pers estimates every second kilogram of Australian beef sold in China doesn’t come from Australia — and may not even be beef.
Counterfeiting by low cost producers in Third World markets has been a challenge to major corporations and fashion houses for decades. However, fashion is not the only targets. Food fraud is increasingly common. It is essentially the sale of an inferior product represented as a more valuable one. This could be through substitution, dilution, tampering or misrepresentation of food, ingredients or packaging.
High-value and highdemand foods are particularly at risk. Brands may be targeted with fake labelling and branding. Labels like organic and free-range are also popular targets. Origins can be difficult to trace, resulting in fraudulent use of these labels.
We’re all familiar with food fraud that passes off one product as something more up-market. For years, Nile perch has been passed off as Australian barramundi; generic green leaves marketed as oregano; and prawns from Thailand and Vietnam sold as local product. It can include deliberate fake country of origin information, for example, labelling snow peas from Nigeria as locally grown.
Or, as we saw last year, dodgy honey. Testing at an international scientific lab that specialises in honey fraud detection found almost half the samples from supermarket shelves were adulterated, in other words mixed with something other than nectar from bees.
The upside means there are opportunities for Australian producers to take advantage of strong demand and in many cases achieve a price premium. The downside is unscrupulous traders want to cash in by muscling in with copies of our brands. Because it is designed to be undetected, it is difficult to know the true reach of food fraud, but there is no doubt it is a lucrative practice.
Calling out cheats is not just about reputation and profit. It is about 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 products were fakes, bad publicity could destroy them.
All consumers have the right to be able to tell at a glance the origin of their food and where it was processed. We need to be able to rely on simple labelling.
Imitation may be said to be the sincerest form of flattery. When it comes to our fabulous Aussie food, it is simply theft.
We need to take every measure to ensure our brands and producers are protected from opportunists trying to cash in on their hard work.