Another triumph for WOW PR! Prominent article in The Australian...

Another triumph for WOW PR! Prominent article in The Australian today. (My grandfather was one of the six founding orchardists in the Goulburn Valley some 115 years ago):
"Growers furious with ‘welshing’ Woolies"
Victorian farmers have labelled Woolworths “untrustworthy” and a poor corporate citizen for abandoning a high-profile , $70 million, five-year commitment to source of its private Select label processed fruit and tinned tomatoes from Shepparton processor SPC Ardmona.

Woolworths has walked away from the lifeline it offered in 2014 to SPC to use only Australiangrown apricots, pears, and peaches processed and packaged under contract by SPC for its private label Select brands until 2019.

The retailer wants the freedom to source its canned and processed fruit from outside Australia, probably from China, from next year to keep prices in its Select food range low. Two years ago, SPC hailed the $70m local-purchasing commitment from Woolworths as a “game-changer” for the company as it struggled to survive, helping to secure the future of its 800 fulltime jobs.

The public announcement by Woolworths was never turned into a written five-year contract between SPC and the major retailer specifying prices and fruit volumes. “All we ever saw about the $70m commitment was the Woolies press release,” SPC spokeswoman Yvonne McKay said yesterday.

Woolworths confirmed yesterday it would import more cheap Italian tinned tomatoes and switch its private Select Australian tinned tomatoes to rival local Echuca processor Kogame next year, in place of its SPC sourcing deal.