Horticulture New Zealand commissioned Consumer NZ to do an independent survey of consumers, asking if they wanted mandatory country of origin labelling on fruit and vegetables.

Seventy-one per cent of those surveyed said they did. Interestingly, more than three out of four female respondents said they wanted mandatory country of origin labelling on fruit and vegetables. Only nine per cent of those surveyed indicated they were opposed to it.

The survey respondents also said they wanted to buy fresh fruit and vegetables – totalling 70 per cent – and 72 per cent want to know where it comes from. Of concern is only 82 per cent of the respondents bought fresh fruit each week and only 80 per cent of the respondents bought fresh vegetables each week. We clearly need to encourage New Zealanders to buy more fruit and vegetables.

We did the survey because we wanted to know what consumers want. We are proud of our product and we want NZ consumers to have the choice to buy local and to know when they are buying local. Having done the survey, we are confident NZ consumers want to both buy local and know where their fresh fruit and vegetables come from.

Safe food

Buying local supports both local economies and the wider NZ economy. Horticulture employs 60,000 workers and so by buying NZ-grown produce, we are supporting our economy.

But there is a more important reason to buy NZ-grown produce. For more than 20 years, the majority of our fresh fruit and vegetables have complied with international food safety standards that are backed up by an audit regime, as well as meeting the requirements of NZ’s Food Safety legislation. 

Both NZ and overseas supermarkets require compliance with these schemes to ensure only the best quality, fresh, healthy and safe fruit and vegetables are delivered for sale. So by buying NZ-grown produce consumers have the assurance of those food safety schemes. Similar or the same schemes do apply to imported food.

Australian requirements

Another reason for the adoption of country of origin labelling for fruit and vegetables is that this is required in Australia, our closest and one of our most important trading partners. So exporters will already be meeting country of origin labelling requirements for Australia. Our food safety and related laws are aligned with Australia, expect for with mandatory country of origin labelling.

The way mandatory labelling can be achieved is through a new piece of legislation being sponsored by the Greens called the Consumers Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill. So the way ahead is straightforward.

New Zealand’s commercial growers and consumers want mandatory country of origin labelling on fresh fruit and vegetables and Parliament has the Green’s Bill to make it law. It’s now time for our Members of Parliament to act and make it law for mandatory country of origin labelling.

So contact your local MP and ask them for their support. After all, your clothes and footwear are required to have country of origin labelling, now it’s time for our fresh fruit and vegetables to have their origin identified.

The survey results can be found at: www.hortnz.co.nz/assets/UploadsNew/CoOL-Survey-Results-2017.pdf