A New South Wales citrus grower is calling for an urgent overhaul of Australia's country of origin food labelling laws.

Griffith farmer Vito Mancini is drafting a proposal on behalf of Riverina growers to try to unravel the confusion consumers face when products like juices are labelled Australian made.

Mr Mancini says if an item is labelled "Product of Australia" or "Australian Grown" it means the product is wholly produced here.

But he says if the carton says "Made in Australia" without an accompanying green logo showing a kangaroo, the goal posts shift.

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"'Product of Australia' means it has to be 100 per cent Australian," he said.

"'Made in Australia' means that as long as most of the costs, well above 50 per cent of the costs from Australia, being the bottle, the packaging, the man hours put into it, if that's more than 50 per cent Australian then the product can be called made in Australia.

"The significant product, the juice, may be foreign but as long as the cost of the bottle is the majority cost of the product, it means it can be made in Australia.

"The juice sector in Australia is quite competitive and a lot of the smaller players who are trying to do the right thing by supporting Australian orange growers haven't had the ability to be able to market themselves and differentiate themselves for the consumer."

There are 1,900 citrus growers across Australia, compared with 2,500 in 1980. Many have left the industry in recent years due to poor returns and drought.

Riverina growers supply more than half of the oranges used in Australia for juicing.

Mr Mancini is calling on the Federal Government to overhaul labelling rules.

"The proposal is trying to make a system where a consumer can pick up a bottle of orange juice and quickly and concisely work out if it's Australian or if it's foreign," he said.

Confusion over what various labels mean

National Farmers Federation chief executive Matt Linnegar says there has already been various proposals for changes to labelling.

He believes there is scope to adjust how the "Made in Australia" term is used.

"It should be a percentage of a product that's actually from Australia not the value because we get into packaging and all these other elements," he said.

"We understand why it's there because someone's packaged here and it's obviously supported an Australian job, but I think it's just confusing for consumers, so I think if we talk about what constitutes a product I think we're at a better place than the value equation that's for sure.

"From our understanding, what consumers want is some clarity.

"So if they see a label and they think the product's Australian, then they'd obviously want to know that what they're buying in fact is Australian."

The Australian Made Campaign administers the green logos that label whether a product meets the Government's standards on claiming something is made here.

Companies pay to use the "Product of Australia", "Australian Grown" and "Made in Australia" labels and are subjected to random audits to ensure they meet the standards.

Ian Harrison, the chief executive of the Australian Made Campaign, says if the term "Made in Australia" is used without the accompanying green logo, then it complies with lesser standards.

"We think there'll be some movement in the next term of Government to helping tidy up what's an unfortunate area of confusion for consumers," he said.

"We've actually written to the major parties before this election and the Greens and said listen guys, put a lot more emphasis on country of origin, it means a lot in the market place, far more than you appear to understand.

"The rules surrounding this area simply aren't tight enough.

"We've got some proposals that we believe will tighten it, we've done it successfully for the Australian Made and Australian Grown logos, Government should follow suit."

Onus on consumers to know their purchases

Geoff Parker from the Australian Beverages Council says it would be difficult to justify any costly changes to labelling.

"Any scope to change the legislation must be balanced with what consumers are looking for and also for what industry can achieve," he said.

"There is no point bringing about a bad piece of legislation or laws that simply cannot be complied with by industry or are too costly for industry to be able to adapt.

"We think that the legislation is right, but possibly consumers' awareness and understanding of the legislation is something that we could look at."



Mr Parker said the onus is on consumers to be more informed about the products that they are buying.

"If it's a juice manufacturer, for example, or a local, small juice processor that's looking to promote the fact that their juice is 100 per cent Australian content, then absolutely it's on them to promote that through whatever means.

"Whether that be on their label, they do have the option to state that their juice is 100 per cent Australian juice in other places on their label other than the minimum requirement being on the back label, as well as their advertising and marketing campaign.

"There is this level playing field in regards to the legislation but then in relation to what each individual grower or juice manufacturer might do over and above that is entirely up to them."

Survey finds consumer appetite for Australian produce

New research shows consumers are looking to buy Australian products more than ever. The Roy Morgan Research is commissioned by the Australian Made Campaign.

It shows 55 per cent of the 1,000 people surveyed say buying Australian has become more important to them in the past 12 months.

Ian Harrison says just 12 per cent of the respondents said they would not buy Australian products if they were more expensive. He says the results are encouraging.

"There is increasing concern in the community about where the jobs for the future are coming from," he said.

"We all know what happens when our neighbour loses their job, you think well one day it might be mine, perhaps I'd better start investing back into my own community, my own farmers, my own manufacturers, our own jobs, and that's one of the things we think are behind this.

"I think people are seeing that, they're seeing business closures, they're seeing downgrades of profit ruling and people, we're seeing jobs and unemployment.

"I mean government figures the other day talked about six and a quarter per cent unemployment and it's five and a half, five and three quarter now so Australians understand that."