Ausveg and Independent Senator Nick Xenophon have held a press conference to voice their opposition to a new levy on growers from Woolworths to help it pay for its latest Jamie Oliver marketing campaign.
Woolworths recently launched a range of sensory stickers and sticker album collectables featuring UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, which according to the supermarket giant, aim to educate children on the benefits of fresh food.
According to research, Woolworths said, Australian kids struggle to correctly identify fresh fruit and vegetables and lack knowledge of where produce comes from, and the Jamie’s Garden Collectables range aims to educate them on the source of fresh food as well as its benefits.
Ausveg and Senator Xenophon claim, however, that the supermarket is charging farmers an unsustainable 40c-per-crate levy to pay for the new campaign, on top of the 2.5 to 5 per cent fee growers are already required to pay Woolworths to market and promote their produce.
Moreover, growers around the country are being given no undertaking from Woolworths on what return they will see from the additional funds they are being asked to provide to fund the promotion, according to Ausveg, the peak body for Australia's vegetable and potato growers, which is calling on the ACCC to investigate the levy.
Woolworths said: “It’s disappointing that Senator Xenophon and Ausveg didn’t contact us. We could have explained that the contribution was entirely voluntary, how around half our suppliers chose to work with us on the campaign which benefits the whole fruit and vegetable industry and how participating growers are paying less than 2 per cent of the cost of a case of produce.”
The retailer also said it was "extremely proud" of its world-first campaign in which it had partnered with Jamie Oliver, Nutrition Australia and Australian farmers to get kids excited about eating more fresh, healthy fruit and vegetables.
“We have had a great response from our customers buying more fresh food and the early signs are encouraging. It’s great for our customers to be eating better and great for our growers to be selling more fresh produce."
According to AusVeg, however, growers around the country are frightened that if they do not comply with these requests to fund the campaign, their business will be blacklisted and they will start to receive fewer orders for produce, or be struck out altogether.
“It’s astounding for a company that posted a $1.32 billion net profit in February and employs 190,000 staff to be going back to already squeezed farmers and asking them to cough up more money to pay for promotions,” acting chief executive William Churchill said.
“Australia’s farmers cannot afford to fund Woolworths’ marketing campaigns and expectations that growers should contribute more are totally unreasonable. The ACCC must immediately investigate,” said Churchill.
Ausveg has also written to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver requesting that he asks Woolworths to give refunds to struggling farmers, who have contributed to a massive new marketing campaign.
“We have no issue with Mr Oliver, but for Woolworths to ask hard working Australian growers to stump up this additional money is unreasonable, unfair and un-Australian,” said Churchill.
