Organic farmers and retailers have warned that Aussie consumers are being misled by falsely labelled ‘organic’ products—and alleging some producers greenwash their products by exploiting lax product labelling laws.
Sonya Dowling is an organic poultry producer who runs Enviroganic Farm in Murringo, NSW, where certified organic chickens and turkeys are raised. Dowling told The Guardian that consumers were being misled and misinformed about official organic certification logos on their products.
“It’s not just poultry alone; it’s cosmetics, fruit and vegetables. It’s rife, unfortunately. A lot of these consumers are unassuming and they just don’t know. And they’re paying a huge premium for it,” she said.
Dowling had even seen retailers using the name of her business, along with an “organic” label, on chicken she had not supplied.
Australia has a national standard for organic goods, but only for those that are exported; it doesn’t apply to domestic produce.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission stated that “organic certification is not legally required for a product supplied in Australia to be described as organic. However, businesses that make any organic claims must be able to prove those claims”.
According to Australian Organic Limited research, household intake of organic products grew by 3.6 per cent to 92 per cent in 2021, the equivalent of over 565,000 new households and 9 million households overall.
The same data showed that 39 per cent of shoppers say they would avoid purchasing an organic product if it did not display a certification mark. However, producers can use “organic” on their products without meeting any particular standards or being certified, leading many Australian consumers astray and paying a premium for meat, cheese, cosmetics and other goods.
“From a consumer perspective, products that have only a very small percentage of organic ingredients can claim to be organic and can be labelled as such,” The Australian Organic Limited’s chief executive officer, Jackie Brian told The Guardian.
“I often get calls from organic operators that are certified and doing the right thing, and they’re facing competition at the point of sale from companies that are being fraudulent,” Brian added.
The Coalition has introduced a bill to the federal parliament that aims to establish a legal definition for ‘organic’ and restrict its use to goods that meet the criteria.
The Senate has referred the bill to the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee for inquiry and report by 31 January 2025.
The opposition’s agriculture spokesperson, David Littleproud, told The Guardian that past attempts to bring forward a domestic standard for ‘organic’ labelled goods had seen complications resulting from disagreements between organic representative bodies.
“There’s a little internal politics between the organic groups,” he said. “The biggest sticking point [was] getting them all to agree”.
“If the Greens support it, it will get through,” he said. “And I’m confident”.
The Albanese government’s position on the bill is imminent.
