Local growers devastated as Woolworths swaps to Chinese, South African fruit (2024)

Australian canned fruit growers have been left devastated after the country’s largest processor slashed its orders for the upcoming season, blaming budget-conscious consumers.

Growers were told in a meeting at SPC’s Shepparton office last month that orders of peaches would be reduced by 40 per cent, and pears would be reduced by 60 per cent.

SPC has been processing fruit in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley for more than 100 years.

In addition to producing products under its own name, SPC also processes Australian fruit for supermarket home brand canned fruit.

A spokesperson for the cannery attributed the reduction to increased demand for cheaper supermarket own-brand products, using fruit from overseas.

“As a result of the cost-of-living crisis, the average Australian household is under pressure, and customers are purchasing alternative products imported from countries such as South Africa and China, where the cost of production is lower,” they said.

“As a result of this reduced demand, we have made the difficult decision to reduce our orders of peaches and pears for the upcoming season. We expect our volumes of peaches and pears to normalise in 2026.”

The spokesperson said SPC-branded canned fruit would continue to be 100 per cent Australian-grown fruit. The cannery’s local sourcing of apricots, plums and apples would remain unchanged, they added.

SPC provides Australian canned fruit for Woolworths and Coles home-brand products.

Loading

In 2020, Woolworths started using Chinese fruit in some canned fruit products. However, at the time, the supermarket described the change as temporary.

“Due to extraordinary demand during COVID-19 and a poor harvest from bushfires, SPC could not supply major supermarkets with Australian fruit for their tinned fruit range,” it said at the time.

Several Woolworths-branded tins of peaches now use Chinese or South African peaches, while some of the supermarket’s own-brand jars of sliced pears use fruit from South Africa. In contrast, Coles peaches and pears are labelled as containing 99 per cent Australian ingredients.

Max Wright, a grower from Invergordon, near Shepparton, who has previously done promotional work for SPC, said last month’s meeting was disheartening.

“Our Australian fruit is quality assured for safety every year – we do all of this stuff to keep it good,” he said.

“And it seems desperately unfair that we then can’t compete with what is coming in from overseas.”

A Woolworths spokesperson said continuity of supply was an important consideration for its sourcing, and it had sourced some imported fruit to manage demand over the last few years.

“We remain committed to supporting local growers, and have worked with SPC this year to introduce three new tinned fruit products with locally sourced fruit back into our own brand range, including peach slices,” they said.

“We provide country of origin labelling on all our own brand food to help customers make an informed choice.“

The supermarket has introduced two new canned peach products, a 700g and 825g peach slice tin, which will use SPC fruit. These products are expected to be available nationally by August. Smaller cans of peaches will continue to use Chinese fruit, while the supermarkets’ own-brand peach halves will continue to use fruit from South Africa.

Woolworths-branded tinned fruit is on average 30 per cent cheaper than branded equivalents.

It posted a $1.62 billion profit last financial year.

Wright said such a large reduction in SPC’s order would devastate local businesses, with fruit trees taking years to grow.

“Supermarkets can sit on their profits, knowing that they’ve wrecked an industry,” said Wright.

“Woolworths’ comment was previously [in 2020] that they couldn’t get enough from Australia, but they’ve gone back on that. It’s a bit hypocritical.”

A spokesperson for Coles, which posted a $1.1 billion profit last year, confirmed its canned peaches and pears would continue to be Australian sourced.

“We are working closely with our suppliers to increase the volume of locally grown fruit in canned range, while also maintaining availability for our customers,” the spokesperson said.

Shepparton MP Kim O’Keeffe said Thursday’s announcement was a wake-up call for the state government. She said Victoria should have done more in recent years to tackle household and business cost-of-living pressures.

“The Allan Labor government expects it to be business as usual,” O’Keeffe said.

“Well, it’s not. And today, one of our biggest employers – an iconic company that is 100 years old – can no longer compete with imported peaches and pears from countries such as South Africa and China, where the cost of production is lower.”

Victorian Agriculture Minister Ros Spence was contacted for comment.

with Broede Carmody