The food and grocery manufacturing sector pays wages and salaries of $13.56 billion.
The industry’s workforce accounts for about 3 per cent of the population.
The food and grocery manufacturing industry consists of 30,104 businesses.
The industry provides around 24 million nutritious, affordable meals to Australians every day.
312,000 Australians are employed in the food, beverage and manufacturing industries, including half in rural and regional areas.
Australia’s $108 billion food and grocery manufacturing industry is the nation’s largest manufacturing sector.
Industry spends on average 0.5 per cent of turn-over on R&D – about $368 million a year.

Media Centre

Industry calls on the Greens to help stop dumping of unsustainable toilet paper

Monday, 15 February 2010 09:43

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) has called on the Greens to join with Independent Senator for South Australia Nick Xenophon to put pressure on the government to reverse the decision to withdraw anti-dumping duties on toilet tissue from Indonesia and China.

AFGC Chief Executive Kate Carnell said that the cheap toilet paper from Indonesia and China was not subject to the same sustainability requirements as Australian products.

“We have no knowledge of where the fibre used to make this imported toilet tissue comes from. There are no requirements for water re-use, no requirements for energy efficiency – in fact no requirement to consider sustainability at all,” Ms Carnell said.

“In Australia, the fibre used comes from sustainably managed forests and plantations, and all companies are decreasing water use and moving to more sustainable energy use.

“Not only does the removal of the anti-dumping duties undermine the sustainability of Australian industry and place Australian jobs at risk, it undermines the government’s sustainability agenda.

“Surely this is not acceptable to the Greens. We urge the Greens to put pressure on the government to reverse this decision and support the development of sustainable industry in Australia,” Ms Carnell said.

“Sustainable manufacturing is a global issue – we should expect the same commitment to sustainability and ethical practices from our trading partners as we do from ourselves,” she said.

-ENDS-

More information: Jo Thomas, AFGC Director Corporate Affairs 0417 667 169.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TOILET TISSUE

The Australian toilet tissue industry directly employs more than 1,000 people and the total indirect employment is more than 2,000 in Melbourne and the Mt Gambier Region.
13,094 sheets of toilet paper are used by every man, woman and child in Australia each year.
Almost 290 billion sheets of toilet paper are used each year in Australia.
The value of toilet paper sold in Australia each year is $856 million – that’s $38.67 per person or $107.42 per household*.

*Based on ABS Australian population figures of 22,138,000 (as at 29/01/10) and number of Australian households in 2009 being 7,968,400.

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