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both of australia’s major supermarket chains, coles and woolworths, have slashed prices on their own-brand milk offerings, in a move which they claim will not affect farmgate prices for their milk suppliers, but which has nevertheless caused consternation throughout the dairy industry. coles led the move when it reduced the price of a 2 litre bottle of own-brand milk by 47c to just $2 - which was immediately matched by its competitor, woolworth’s - in a ‘loss leader’ move aimed at reeling shoppers in from other supermarkets, such as aldi and iga.

a new private member’s bill to be tabled this week to australian parliament would, if passed, require australia’s major supermarkets to reveal what percentage of the retail price of their fresh produce goes to the farmers. the farm gate pricing bill, drafted by independent senator nick xenophon and house of representatives independent bob katter, would need the support of a major party, in order to be passed.

supermarket giants coles and woolworths have been taken to task over dodgy origin labelling, after an investigation by the nsw food authority revealed that two stores were selling mislabelled fruit the incident marks the first time coles and woolworths have been fined for country of origin labelling breaches, and both have been placed on the nsw food authority’s name and shame register. woolworths at newington in sydney has been fined $1540 for advertising lemons for sale as being the “product of australia” when the individual products were actually from the usa.

the number of grocery products on promotion at tesco, asda, sainsbury\'s and ocado fell during december as the volume of promotions throughout the year made it difficult for the uk retailers to increase the level in the run-up to christmas. according to the latest data from just-food\'s promo tracker, all four retailers had less items on promotion in december, seen as one of the key selling periods in the uk grocery calendar.

the australian competition and consumer commission yesterday announced that it will oppose the sale of supermarket chain franklins to wholesale giant metcash, on the grounds that it would create a monopoly in wholesale supermarket supply in nsw, and make it more difficult for another wholesaler to enter the nsw market. metcash had announced its intention to purchase the 88 franklins stores for $215 million, and then onsell them to independent retailers under the iga brand, retaining supply rights.

woolworths limited, australia’s largest supermarket operator, has reported a 7.5% surge in full year sales to $49.6 billion. chief executive officer, michael luscombe, said their results highlighted the resilience of the australian economy. “despite the global economic turmoil, 2009 has been a successful year with solid results across our business overall,” he said. “continued solid sales growth in food retailing and especially in discretionary areas like apparel, consumer electronics and homewares, highlights the underlying strength of the australian economy in these times.

the national heart foundation of australia yesterday announced that it has been asked by the gillard government to help set targets for salt and saturated fat reduction in sauces. “we’re providing nutrition information on a range of important food categories such as bread, breakfast cereal, simmer sauces, processed meat and more recently we provided data on soups,” said dr lyn roberts, national ceo of the heart foundation.

transport giant eddie stobart has warned that the supermarket demand for two-for-one offers is placing a strain on logistics firms, and increasing the number of miles the company’s fleet runs empty. a stobart group spokesman told foodmanufacture.co.uk that the comments, initially made back in may when ceo andrew tinkler gave a lengthy interview to a journalist – were “not meant to cause a storm” and were mentioned alongside other pressures.

rising commodity prices: should we be concerned? that is a key question facing the food industry. again this week there was much comment on the issue and the possible impact on the sector. sainsbury\'s boss justin king, for instance, warned suppliers they would have to work hard to justify price increases. meanwhile, the uk retailer, widely seen to have outperformed its rivals over christmas, issued its festive numbers this week, alongside the likes of tesco, marks and spencer and morrisons.