Safeguards and anti-dumping: Australia’s food processing industry seeks protection

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

In April 2013 SPC, the only tomato processor in Australia,   announced that it would cancel the contracts of around 60 fruit-growers in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley region; another 50 would have their orders reduced.

The company has been struggling since 2005 when it was bought by Coca-Cola Amatil for $500 million. The company’s management has described SPC’s performance as disappointing' , resulting in the decision to consolidate its three manufacturing plants into two and to write off more than $200 million of the company’s assets. Increased competition on the supermarket shelves from imported private labelled goods has resulted in the gradual decrease of the company’s market share, to its current level of around 30 per cent. Struggling to stay profitable and needing to restructure its operations, the company has asked the Federal government to impose duties on imported processed fruit and vegetables to give the industry some ‘breathing space’.