All products sold online should declare country of origin/manufacture

Sorry locked in Melbourne

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Then for the 2019 winner for Australia’s best bacon Princi Smallgoods https://princismallgoods.com.au/ you could try their distributor in Vic

Genobile Saba MELBOURNE

48A Radford Rd
Reservoir
VIC
3073
Ph: (03) 9355 7477
info@genobilesaba.com

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Thanks for the contact will email and see if they distribute near me as on the other side of the city.

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I would also like to mention some examples of positive and negative declarations of country of origin/manufacture. (I have no affiliation whatsoever with any of the below).

Positive

The retail store Shaver Shop includes clear labels on many shaving products on its website, and even the national flag for where the products are manufactured. An example here:

www.shavershop.com.au/braun/series-5-wet%2Fdry-electric-shaver-silver%2Fblack-plus-clean–and-charge-station-009641.html

(The link above would not embed automatically - so copy and paste it, or visit some of the electric shaver products)

Many shaving products are still manufactured in Europe.

Average

Shoe retailer Hype DC generally only declares where shoes are made if they are not made in China. When they are made elsewhere, the origin will be mentioned prominently on its website. Example…

https://www.hypedc.com/new-balance-1500-made-in-england-black-blue-m1500uct.html

Negative

Well, where to begin. Aside from the thousands of retailer websites in Australia that intentionally obscure the country of origin/manufacture, many often hype that products they sell are “designed” somewhere considered desirable or with a reputation for quality. In order to make customers believe that equates to manufacture (it doesn’t).

I bought a washing machine recently. I ended up ordering a Bosch, which was quite reasonably priced and is genuinely made in Germany. I found it’s country of origin mainly due to reviews by Choice (it’s reviews pages often allow you to “filter” products by country of manufacture). I bought the washing machine from Harvey Norman.

But I was equally disappointed by Harvey Norman and other retailers trying to fool me into buying brands like ASKO, which offers the clutching-at-straws slogan, “inspired by Scandinavia”…

Another example of the attitude of some retailers is when you ask them directly where something is made, and their response is effectively to tell you to stop caring, and accept that “everything” is made in China. I recently contacted this model train website to ask about buying a model train as a gift for someone. I wanted to find out if any of the models of Australian trains are made in Australia.

The reply I received today was as follows:

As far as i know all Australian model trains are made in china. It is not feasible to manufacture them in Australia as the cost of each model would then be very high.
I think you’ll find that a vast majority of any product is made in China.

In other words: “Stop trying, and just accept the way things are.”

Well. I won’t.

I want to know where things are made. It may not be important to some people, but it’s important to me. And I think this information should be readily available to every consumer - on websites run by Australian registered businesses - no matter what your purchasing preferences may be.

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I totally agree. And I think this aim is worthy of a Choice campaign: they are very good at them!

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Couldn’t agree more. Perfect example is clothing. We are soooo sick of having to email businesses to establish this basic info. You would think they would disclose the info to avoid having to outlay time to attend to this. It’s disturbing to note how extraordinarily difficult it is to source locally made … even with sellers that sound very Australian. Why would they think for a moment that their outlet selling overpriced foreign product is any better that Joe Blow’s selling similar?! And wouldn’t it be nice to actually have the alternative …

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What is the point of having labelling “laws” or requirements, anyway, when manufacturers:
1 - use such small print in “compliance” with labelling requirements that you can’t possiblhy read it in a supermarket - you’d need better light, and something stronger than a magnifying glass - oh, I forgot - we’re all supposed to use a microscope, when browsing for the product we want
2 - print the text in a dark tone which is roughly the same darkness as the surrounding background, making it almost impossible to decipher the text, even with the microscope that you always take with you to the supermarket?
3- disguise and conceal what oils the product contains, by saying it contains “vegetable ols” - when what consumers really want to know is whether it contains canola oil, palm oil, or some other disgusting oil that we’re apparently never going to be told about.
4 - persist in telling us it’s made with “local and imported ingredients”, instad of telling us where the ingredients come from?

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Totally agree that websites should have to include country product was made in. Another thing that I feel is important is that all prescription medicines should have the country of manufacture clearly shown on the packaging. Most seem to already have it but I’ve noticed a few that don’t appear to, unless perhaps it has been covered up by the chemists sticker.

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Welcome to the Community @Huntermanjim

This page from the TGA should explain how it is for medicines, whether one agrees with it or not.

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