Hi @Ronaldo
I have moved your post to this current thread on CHOICE’s campaign about Country of Qrigin labelling to save doubling up on topics that cover the same concerns.
I agree with most of your content and it would be good to get much clearer info regarding places, what ingredients and amounts.
As mentioned up thread it may not be possible to say accurately unless you expect the label to change with every batch. Most people who are going to read the small print do it and make their decision. Are they, are you, really going to read it all every time you buy in case it has changed?
Yes very important. Prefer Australian then New Zealand and avoid other places of origin to reduce carbon footprint and food miles
There is some saving of emissions in reducing transport of goods which is largely fossil-fueled around the world. OTOH there is a cost in manufacturing, packaging and storage of Oz products because of the electricity that is used which is mainly generated from burning coal. I am also unsure of the emissions generated by a cargo plane coming from SE Asia compared with those from the same weight of goods being trucked interstate in Oz.
Comparing local made with the typical sources of overseas products is there is a measurable net saving? Does it depend on the type of goods? If anybody has seen such an analysis could you give a link please.
What does one do about goods like TVs, computers, phones, cars etc that are not made here much or at all?
… for now.
You raise a valid question that rapidly gets complicated and does require careful analysis.
I prefer food from safe countries (like A&NZ) simply because I don’t want to poison myself. 
Needles in strawberries notwithstanding.
What do you do when you have no choice, indeed. You suck it up?
I don’t think CoO labelling applies to electronics goods anyway. That is, the scope of this government review was only food, I think. Undoubtedly some people will want to extend the labelling scheme to non-food items.
Country of Origin is immensely important to me; I am grateful for all the leaps and bounds in improving the consumer info over the last decade.
Sadly, all this info is wasted when consumers bring their own half-baked notions about any country. Just because they enjoyed being tourists in pristine wilderness or countryside (or worse, they saw only the tourism marketing), is NOT enough to pass judgement on the food processor or the importer.
For example, NZ or Chile might be famous for their clean&green tourism, but their own Country Of Origin laws might be duds.
The label could say “The remaining 20% of ingredients are from…” So if China were mentioned I could make the right choice. I will leave that to your imagination.
Over the last couple of months both Coles and Woolworths have started selling grapes in bags marked “from USA” but behind a sign “(White/red/black) grapes of mixed origin”. Does this mean they only have bags printed with ‘from USA’ but the grapes are Australian? How can a bunch of grapes (they are largely bunches) be of mixed origin? I can’t think of a reasonable explanation for this. I’m not buying the grapes, however good they look.
I believe that mixed origin means from the country stated, eg USA, and with the possibility that some Australian product could be present.
In the case of a single bunch of grapes, it could be USA or Australian.
With navel oranges, it could be a mix of both.
Are table grapes in season in Australia this month?
If so which growing region and variety are produced?
Menindee and Flame Seedless grapes are harvested in Nov in central Qld. Prior to that we apparently import grapes from the USA to fill the Aussie winter demand. Perhaps there is an overlap. It does seam rather late in the year to have fresh grapes from California. Harvesting typically winds up at the end of November, with USA demand through Dec and Jan met from cold storage and any late picking in Dec. USA winter demand typically exceeds supply, hence expect most USA product exported was picked closer to mid season when supply peaks, and prices are lowest.
Chemically treated and cold stored table grapes from the USA will be around until at least the end of Dec, from previous years observations. That’s despite early Aussie crops being available.
Once upon a time, Australian pears were seasonal but now they are available all year round.
They are obviously kept in cold storage for many months, and the packs of Coles Packham pears are now already displaying brown patches on them where they are starting to go bad.
Thankfully, the stone fruit is now available and as cheap as chips.
The obvious is that one of the signs is wrong - just some human error. It may also be that as seasons change over there is a scramble to source grapes from wherever they can and that the consignment going to each outlet may be different at various times.
There seems to be a premise held by several posters that fresh produce is fixed in time and space so that one straightforward label will accurately describe the origin or that every box can be immediately identified and that labels will be updated in real time as they are brought out and put on display. I doubt that either of these things are true.
Hi Ronaldo,glad to see you are aware of the NZealand repackaging scheme,they have done this for yrs,China imports thru the back door…
