Where Do My Groceries Come From?

I am currently reading an amusing book called ‘A Year Without “Made In China” – One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy’. The adjective ‘amusing’ is not chosen lightly. It has got to be amusing if M was caught smiling while reading page after page of the book. It is written by an American journalist named Sara Bongiorni. Printed inside the book’s dust jacket is a picture of her but before I even took a look at it and before I even finished reading a few lines describing the book, I suspected that she had Chinese heritage! Is this spooky or what? I haven’t seen the book in any bookshops and borrowed this copy from none other than our beloved Melbourne City Library.

The book and along with TV shows like “A Current Affair” and “Today Tonight” got me thinking about the so-called invasion of Chinese or foreign made products. Is it really that bad? Both M and I are not really bothered by China’s expansion. China’s steps to become an economic giant have given my Chinese relatives a better standard of living and thus a better life. I used to feel how unfair it was for them to be stuck over there but seeing them moving up makes me feel better for my late maternal grandma who seemed to blame herself for their sufferings all those years ago. Right now China is not a threat to me personally at all. I have lived as a minority all my life and that has given me invaluable abilities of working my way around obstacles even though it is not very nice to be a minority all the time. So instead of freaking out, I just get around any obstacles that come my way, but the thing is that Chinese products are not things I particularly shun unless they are harmful or if the quality is especially bad. Despite saying that, it doesn’t mean that I don’t support Aussie made products.
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I was thinking about what to write about in this blog last week and an idea came into my head. I wondered if it would be a good idea to write a post about where my groceries come from. Just like the author of the book I am reading, I have decided to sort each product according to what is printed on its label. I am not going to call each company to make them give me the country of origin of each ingredient/component that makes up a product. Being a ‘nobody’, the companies probably won’t entertain someone like me questioning them. Since I had a few days before we do our grocery run on Saturday, I had time to think about it a little bit more. If the invasion is really as bad as what people would like me to think, I wondered if this idea would turn into a “Spot the Aussie” game. The vision of a certain type of local visitors turning up at a famous Melbournian landmark only to find the place ‘taken over’ by ‘other’ people came to my head. Imagining the possible facial expressions of those local visitors was almost enough for me to throw out this idea but M wanted to give it a go and see what we would find.

The pictures below are the stuff we bought on Saturday. We shop for our groceries at Safeway (now known as Woolworths) at QV and ALDI (on Franklin St). Because Asian meals are also consumed in this inter-racial household, we also regularly buy certain products from Asian grocery stores but we didn’t have to last Saturday. The only things not depicted in the pictures are sausages and chicken thigh fillets. We returned to get them on Sunday and they were both Australian products.


Australian products from Safeway/Woolworths

These are what I call “Somewhat Aussie” products. They are ‘Made in Australia from imported & local ingredients’ and we bought them from Safeway/Woolworths.

These are the ones made overseas and we also bought them from Safeway/Woolworths.
· Macleans Toothpaste – England
· Home Brand Toilet Paper – China (Aren’t we brave to use 1 ply sheets?)
· Heinz Baked Beans – New Zealand
· Trident Sweet Chilli Sauce – Thailand
· Home Brand Tuna Chunks – Thailand

Australian products from ALDI

“Somewhat Aussie” products bought from ALDI. They were labelled as ‘Made in Australia from imported & local ingredients’.

These are the ones made overseas and were bought from ALDI
· Jasmine Rice – Thailand
· Aluminium Foil – China
· Pineapple Slices – The Philippines (Note: We usually buy Golden Circle.)

A note about ALDI: Some people think that ALDI is not a patriotic option because they are German but they do hire Aussies and when the products are sourced locally, they do come from places that also hire Aussies. ALDI helps to keep our expenses lower.

This is the book I am currently reading.

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Judging from just the groceries I bought on Saturday, I bought only two items that were made in China. That is not that bad, is it? There are a few other things made overseas but only two came from China. I didn’t set out to buy more Aussie made/produce goods just to write this post. What I buy during each grocery run is based entirely on the fortnightly menu we are currently sticking to and what non-edible items we have run out (e.g. Silver Foil). Even the shopping list is pre-made (printed from the computer) and reuse until we dump the menu because M is completely bored of the same meals over and over. LOL