Coles criticises Greens over country-of-origin labelling comments

Coles has hit back at comments about food labelling made by Greens leader Christine Milne, calling them “misleading” and “false”.

On ABC Radio’s Country Hour program, Milne said that Coles “don’t want to see country-of-origin labelling because they have increasingly removed from their shelves branded product in favour of their generic labelling, and of course those generic products have a huge amount … of imported food in them.”

In response, Coles Merchandise Director John Durkan said that Coles would be happy with more stringent Australian food labelling if it helped Australian consumers make more informed choices.

“We told the Blewett inquiry into food labelling that Coles supported clearer and more robust guidelines for labelling Australian made or grown products,” Durkan said.

Durkan accused the Greens of “wilfully ignoring” Coles’ support of country-of-origin labelling regulation.

“Far from wanting to duck tougher Australian labelling rules, we believe any such move will actually highlight the strength of our locally grown and sourced offer,” Durkan said. “Under our Australian First sourcing policy, we always look for Australian growers and producers to supply our house brand products, and we only look overseas if local supply is not available.”

“Under any definition you may care to use, over 96% of our fresh food offer is Australian, and about 90% of our private label product range is also locally sourced,” Durkan said.

In response to the Greens’ claim that the provenance of Coles brand tinned tomatoes is unclear, Durkan posted several photos of the products.

“I’m not sure how it could be made any clearer,” Durkan concluded.