30/10/2026
Another reason to support Australian farmers 🥜👩🌾
Another ABC Landline "must watch" - the leading story yesterday (Sun 25 Oct) on Australian Peanuts. Especially for our followers in the South Burnett - consumers, you make all the difference!! We make an appearance on the show too.
Some take-outs from the show, which will be an eye-opener for anyone concerned about the future of Australian-grown produce:
• The peanut industry of Australia is under threat.
• Markets are being lost to cheap imports, and most Australians are completely unaware that the peanuts they are eating are not Australian, and overseas competitors for our market are not subjected to the same high standards of quality (and disease) checks that are mandatory in Australia.
• Mayvers “Australian Made” pink label peanut butter is “made in Australia from less than 10% Australian ingredients”. Mayvers’ only 100% brand is only sold online.
• Bega claims that these decisions are due to short supply of Australian peanuts, which growers dispute. Growers have cut plantings, leading to lower supply, because of sourcing decisions made by the supermarket brands, and that Australia has plenty of capacity.
• All agree the future is in the hands of consumers – major supermarkets and brands will stock Australian made if consumers make it clear that this is what they want. However, discreet packaging makes the average consumer completely unaware that what they are buying is not Australian. If more people demanded Australian-grown, growers insist capacity is there.
• Bega bought Australia’s largest peanut processing plant (PCA) and closed it due to sustained production losses, after 8 years.
• Peanuts are a necessary crop for rotation in the cane-growing industry. They add nitrogen to the soil reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers, which in turn is good for the health of our iconic reef.
• Current Australian trade rules are deemed to be biased in the trade interests of the countries producing the imports, and harmful to Australian growers.
• Example: Aflatoxins are cancer-causing toxins found in mould on peanuts. A potent, known human carcinogen that primarily attacks the liver, significantly increasing the risk of liver cancer. Australian standards to avoid the presence of this toxin are rigorous. Not so in many other countries where we import our raw product from. In short, a shocking 35 aflatoxin breaches per year, for the last 7 years, have been recorded in imports and are recorded in Federal Government monthly “failing food” reports. Some of these instances report extremely high levels of the toxin. Peanut scientist, Dr Graeme Wright calls it “scary stuff”. A home brand of peanut butter has been recalled from one of the major supermarkets, due to alflatoxin (named in the segment).
Most people have no idea how many imported products we are eating, that could be home grown, and it is not a story the supermarkets seem keen to tell. Driven by profit pressures, they need to be able to “switch” suppliers when it becomes financially necessary. It may simply be the case that consumers are the same in this respect, seeking the cheaper product in tougher times.
But it’s important to know, when we do that, Australia pays.
www.grownhere.com.au has produced some handy information, published just today off the back of the Landline segment, about where you can source 100% Australian made peanut butter: https://grownhere.com.au/all-things-peanuts
If you scroll down the page, you’ll also see which peanut oils are 100% Australian. Not many! But thanks Woollies, for keeping yours on the shelf. And of course, Plenty are 100% high oleic Australian peanuts, all the way!
