On Thursday 11 February, the federal government announced that “dumping duties” would be applied to Feger and La Doria tinned tomatoes on the advice of the Anti-Dumping Commissioner, reports theguardian.com.
Feger and La Doria account for at least 40% of the Italian tinned tomatoes exported to Australia. Both had been found to be exempt from an earlier government decision in April 2014 that had applied to 103 exporters.
The announcement means all brands of Italian tinned tomatoes are now subject to tariffs upon arrival in Australia, which could force up their retail prices.
Duties will be 8.4% of the product price of Feger tinned tomatoes, and 4.5% of La Doria brand. The duties do not apply to pastes, purees, sauces, pasta sauces, juices or sundried tomatoes.
Christopher Pyne the industry minister described the case – which was decided on appeal – as a win for local producers.
He said that Feger and La Doria were “major competitors” in the Australian market, and the ruling would ensure that Australia’s only producer, SPC Ardmona, could compete equally.
The struggling Shepparton-based food manufacturer has been pushing for penalties on Italian tinned tomato exporters for some time.
It received $22m from the Victorian government, headed by then premier Denis Napthine, in 2014 on the condition it would maintain a base workforce of at least 500 people. Its parent company, Coca-Cola Amatil, contributed a further $78m.
Managing director Reg Weine told the ABC last month that SPC was investing $100m in new technology in order to make it “more efficient and innovative”, and ruled out asking for another taxpayer-funded bailout ever again.
Agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce agreed that the result was an example of the government “looking after Australian growers”.
But not everyone is as pleased by the government’s announcement as ministers are, with Crikey’s “Pollytics” blogger Scott Steel, for one, seeing red over the fact that his “favourite” brand of tinned tomatoes would be increasing in price by six cents.
He agreed with another Twitter user that Italian tinned tomatoes were of higher quality than those from Australian producers: “I’ve seen Australian tinned tomatoes on sale for less than the Italian, and still no one would buy them!”
“Every time I’ve tried them they had green stem ends,” replied Steel’s correspondent. “They could at least wait until they are ripe before canning.”
