Australian Made talks CoO branding with new Government

The Australian Made Campaign is calling on the newly-elected coalition Government to recognise and promote the importance of country-of-origin branding – both to support local businesses and to restore consumer confidence in this important aspect of Australia’s labelling system.

Australian Made has written to the new Members of Parliament and has begun meeting with the relevant Ministers to reinforce this message.

Australia enjoys a strong ‘nation brand’ at both the domestic and international level and being recognised as Aussie in the marketplace can be a very powerful and positive asset. It would seem therefore that a stronger focus on country-of-origin branding would help support our manufacturers, farmers and processors where it really counts – in the marketplace.

It makes good sense to use the iconic green-and-gold Australian Made, Australian Grown kangaroo logo to do that.

Australian Made welcomed the National Food Plan announced earlier this year and its focus on exporting into Asia, and encouraged the use of the AMAG logo as part of this increased effort. The logo is Australia’s only registered country-of-origin certification trade mark, and has been used by thousands of businesses in Australia and overseas, for nearly three decades.

On the domestic front, recent research conducted by Roy Morgan and commissioned by the Australian Made Campaign revealed that buying Australian-made products has become more important to consumers over the past 12 months. It would seem to make sense therefore to reduce the unacceptable level of confusion among Australian consumers about the country-of-origin labelling laws in Australia. It is important that we rebuild confidence in the system and add crucial market value to the manufacturing, growing and processing of products in this country.

The Australian Made Campaign looks forward to working closely with the new Government –jobs, better career opportunities and an improved future for all Australians will be among the outcomes. There is more than enough public benefit associated with the AMAG logo and the work of the campaign behind it to justify a much deeper, more strategic partnership between it and the Government.