Only a few years ago jokes about home brand products were quite common. Having a blue and white or red and white dinner meant enjoying generic brand fare that night around the table. But the recent intensification…
In 2008, Chinese baby formula and milk products were tainted
with melamine, killing six babies and hospitalising many more.
EPA/Wu Hong
SPC Ardmona’s $22 million lifeline from the Victorian government seems to have saved Australia’s largest food packaging company. Yet the firm’s recent tribulations are a reminder of why I regularly choose…
The future is uncertain for SPC Ardmona, but alternate models provide food for thought.
AAP
The failure of Victorian fruit cannery SPC Ardmona (SPCA) to secure A$25 million from the federal government has led to heightened fears about the future of the company and the Goulburn Valley fruit growers…
A shift towards fresh food and improved consumer protections in China provides opportunities and threats for Australian food producers.
dcmaster/Flickr
The political lobbying accompanying the government decision to withhold financial support from SPC Ardmona has overshadowed the big structural issues facing Australia’s preserved food industry. The two…
The Productivity Commission has recommended the car industry should receive no additional government funding.
AAP
Ford and Holden gone. SPC Ardmona in jeopardy. Toyota under threat. The Productivity Commission’s (PC) position paper on automotive industry support fires a clear shot across the bows of the manufacturing…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane have drawn a line in the sand on industry assistance…or have they?
Alan Porritt/AAP
Announcing the decision to refuse assistance to SPC Ardmona, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said: “I think it is a clear delineation of where this government believes we need to go with industry policy…
The Government has sent messages to business and the ABC, this week.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The Abbott government has been firing rhetorical bullets at friends and enemies alike in the last few days. Some employers are weak-kneed. The ABC is unpatriotic. On the face of it, there’s little in common…
The Government will not give money to SPC Ardmona.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The federal government has rejected the bid by the embattled food processing company SPC Ardmona for $25 million, in a victory for the Liberal economic “dries” and “a marker” for industry policy. Announcing…
Our fruit industry is struggling against cheap imports - but should we be doing more to protect our “food bowl to Asia”?
AAP
The sight of Victorian fruit farmers bulldozing surplus trees due to the loss of supply contracts is a dramatic way to illustrate the quandary facing both Australian industry and growers. In April Victorian…