I was interested and a little disturbed to hear on the radio the other day that Coles and Woolworths through direct ownership or indirectly have interests in controlling an estimated 80% of the grocery market and the supply chain to that point of sale.
With such power, the ability to control all aspects of production and supply provides an unhealthy monopoly which then puts undue pressure on all independent producers and suppliers to conform or face not having their products represented or else suffer financially, which in turn helps the Corporates takeover plan succeed.

In other Countries the market share was capped at 25% approx.

So what the 80% ownership means is that quality and pricing of foods can be met by the management of the controlling companies in order to increase profits for the shareholders and bonuses for those in the Corporate team.
Food, alcohol, petrol even Gambling is now controlled by these interests.

Problem being now is the power of the two Companies are so entwined in Politics on both sides. Dismantling that power should be made a priority policy by any Government in power, its has been done with Media interests, but with such an important aspect and far reaching impact on life for all Australians there are no such controls in place.

This monopoly only means that farmers in Victoria needs to cut now 750.000 matured fruit trees,
Excellent quality the best in the whole world peach that nobody could afford to buy at shop at $5 /kg but poor farmers couldn't get a dollar and need to dump all stock into pit now.

I guess we could soon enjoy taste of cheap Chinese grown peaches growing in the most polluted regions on the planet instead our own fresh products.

ockanui said..

I was interested and a little disturbed to hear on the radio the other day that Coles and Woolworths through direct ownership or indirectly have interests in controlling an estimated 80% of the grocery market and the supply chain to that point of sale.

.......

I heard that the australian grocery consumer has 100% control of all direct and indirect supply chains from their wallet to the retailer

I also heard that you are free to frequent your local farmer's market / corner greengrocer / anyone other than Coles and Woolies and that this would do more good than shopping in Coles and Woolworths and then complaining about the lack of Government interference in the free market

Just what I heard

Saffer and Carantoc - all good in theory but people go for price. They don't see that the farmer is buggered cos he has to sell his product for half what he did 2 yrs ago, all they can see is $2 milk.

The majority will still flock to what they know and it is shame. The independents used to have 7 day and late trading going for them, the mum n dad stores could cater to the after 6pm or Sunday crowd. Not anymore, the Govt and big chain stores are hell bent on ****** that too.

Carantoc said..

ockanui said..

I was interested and a little disturbed to hear on the radio the other day that Coles and Woolworths through direct ownership or indirectly have interests in controlling an estimated 80% of the grocery market and the supply chain to that point of sale.

.......

I heard that the australian grocery consumer has 100% control of all direct and indirect supply chains from their wallet to the retailer

I also heard that you are free to frequent your local farmer's market / corner greengrocer / anyone other than Coles and Woolies and that this would do more good than shopping in Coles and Woolworths and then complaining about the lack of Government interference in the free market

Just what I heard

Sounds like your defending the free market, but that's not a free market, a free market is where anyone is allowed to compete and there is no competition with 2 players. We can't shop at the Aldi store that did not get built because coles abused environment laws to prevent the competition. The solution is stronger regulation of unproductive, disfunctional and wealth sapping corporate behavior to allow the real free market and competition to work.

The 2 milk is not only at Coles, many independent have done and still do. Coles is not the cheapest supermarket, they get people in with their lost leaders eg 6 $ 1 kg of mince and then you go and pay 2.98 $ for a lettuce or cucumber which is usually only 99 c to 1.99 c in independent grocers. On a big shop trolley you may find that you have payed more at Coles than you would have at an iga. Go and have a look at Siga girrawheen and Siga mirrabooka. If you shop smart and have the time to, you will find that going to Coles to get your toilet paper and crap like that for cheap and then shopping for superior fresh products at an independent you may find your wallet a lot fatter than expected. I loathe Coles and woollies, and until everyone realizes that they are not the cheapest and flocking there like sheep they will continually screw us shoppers with inferior imports and pay producers measly prices that will in turn send them broke. The 2$ milk at Coles at any given time is either one of the 3 big dairy distributors in Perth. ( brownes, pura, Harvey ). Another example is tuna, at Coles when not on special it is 1.98 a can most igas you will find are between 1 $ and .1.78 $. One more a BBQ chicken at Coles is 10.50 $ try an iga it is between 6.99 $ and 9.99 $.

WA71 said..

$2 MILK IS EXCELENT

Ultimately we end up with the society that we deserve, cheap milk is your thing, cheap labour appeals to someone else, cheap imports and so on.

I wonder what percentage of permeate is allowed to be mixed into milk before it actually isn't milk it's just permeate with a milk colour? So the $2 milk may not or should not be called milk given the amount of permeate mixed, like orange juice if its not 100% genuine it's called orange drink? Re the advert, I like milk to be milk and happy to pay a little extra for that privilege.

harrysurfer said..
2 milk

WA71 said..



$2 MILK IS EXCELENT

has caused 2 of the biggest dairies in the southwest to go into receivership yesterday.

YAWN

those two major company's are a huge problem !!!!!

the fruit growers in the riverina have been shafted out of existence . now we will be at the mercy of the big two , "eat this orange from overseas or die sucker "

as someone said earlier , the fruit trees being ploughed into the ground in victoria and southern NSW is an absolute travesty . this will go down in history as the begining of the end of the " lucky country " .

I think we should re build our farming and manufacturing industry's , Quickly before we are ratsh!!!T

GROW IT BUILD IT AND BUY IT HERE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

And now they make you serve you self. F#ck that my money is going elsewhere.

It's like bunnings and master, both failures as far as real hardware stores go. No one can give you advice and they don't stock anything a real trades person wold actually need, and cost is 4 times what a materials supplier charge.

The public is getting fooled by these big companies.

DunkO said..

Problem is they've bought up all the competition so your forced to them, I'm will go out of my way to avoid them.

That and they now control fuel supplies. When you can get up to 15 cents a ltr of 180 ltr of fuel every two weeks you need to shop there

i shop at IGA
never bought fuel from woolies
coles and woolies are marketing to the masses, who will follow like sheep.

DunkO said..
And now they make you serve you self. F#ck that my money is going elsewhere.

It's like bunnings and master, both failures as far as real hardware stores go. No one can give you advice and they don't stock anything a real trades person wold actually need, and cost is 4 times what a materials supplier charge.

The public is getting fooled by these big companies.

Too right.

The irony is Wesfarmers owns all of it.

A grass roots farmers co-operative......... now ****** the farmers (Coles) and turning hardware into the retail outlet sister of Better Homes and Gardens (Bunnings).


Everyone should watch the video above
Biggest duopoly in the developed world and highest rate of grocery price increases........... and then screwing the suppliers. We allow it.
I wonder what they will sell when the suppliers go broke?

Whilst it seems you are technically correct slammin, but wait..

"Milk permeate is a by-product of the dairy production process, formed after ultrafiltration of milk to extract protein and fat used to produce cheese. Permeate has a watery consistency, and is green in colour due to the presence of B vitamins. It consists of lactose, water, vitamins and minerals.
Permeate may be added to fresh milk as part of a process called standardisation, to keep consistent levels of fat and protein in the product which may have seasonal variations. In addition, using permeate as an additive can save dairy processors the cost of disposing of the product.[1]
The re-addition of permeate to milk has caused some controversy. In 2008, dairy farmers in Australia accused food producers of "watering down" milk with permeate to save costs by reducing the volume of milk required from farmers. The processors acknowledged that permeate was added to milk for retail sale, but that this was done to standardise levels of fat and protein as required by food standards regulations.[2] However food standards just require a minimum content of fat and protein for regular milk, and a maximum fat content but same minimum protein for skim milk.
Although there are no known health risks associated with consumption of permeate,[1] further consumer concerns in 2012 over its addition to milk resulted in several milk brands and dairy processors in Australia declaring their products as "permeate-free".[3]"

[b]

slammin said..


You could actually have 100% permeate and it would still be 100% milk.

Mixing permeate into milk is just purely and simply a process of making milk homogenous. MMMMMM Milk!

Sorry, you've just been owned by the marketing dept.

www.crikey.com.au/2012/07/19/rise-of-the-food-super-villian/

"A Dairy Australia spokeswoman said: "Fat and protein levels are very strictly regulated for milk but they can vary from farm to farm and at different times of the year. Permeate is only added to standardise milk so that it meets those regulations." Julian Caples, spokesman for National Foods, said: "If it says milk on the bottle, what you are getting is milk. There is no way it is being watered down."

so in response

I guess you are technically correct being "owned by the marketing" sorry for my stupidity....

I would think that a corporation would not be loosing money on the supply of milk and by using the by product of cheese production to standardize milk and save costs on disposal then the consumers can get a cheaper milk product, but if you want a whole milk then you may have to pay more, I like to purchase a fat reduced milk, not just a marketed "lite" product that again, may be just a bit of marketing as has been exposed with other foods, so yes be buyer aware like I said in another post, Coles," baked fresh today" breads are they what they say, The ACCC will determine that.
The whole reason for this post was that we as consumers are getting shafted in not only the prices of food but will or may end up with substandard quality due limited competition and price supply advantages shown by the controlling companies.

The opening up the market place to a fairer level of competition should become an election issue, the potential risk to us the consumers will be severe, with all aspects of our daily lives in the hands of one or two conglomerates to rape and pillage as they like...