Australia – the country that can barely make a can of beans

By Peter Roberts

Well, it has finally come to this.

Manufacturing in Australia really has sunk to a low ebb when this nation blessed with rich agriculture regions can barely make even the most humble of products.

I confess to being an occasional eater of baked beans – they must have been something my dear mother once served – and I also watch the supermarket shelves to see where things have been made.

Yes, some of us actually bother (as distinct from answering a survey and ‘saying’ we bother) to check where things come so I can favour local produce.

But over the years foreign made baked beans have been invading the supermarket shelves displacing the once locally made staple.

Imagine how I felt when I noticed a few years back that Heinz baked beans were made in New Zealand – it turns out Heinz moved all of its food production across the ditch.

That left only SPC baked beans as the local product on my local supermarket shelves.

Now The Guardian has published a taste comparison of the eight baked bean varieties available in Australia – and SPC is the only local among a sea of branded and home branded imports.

One of eight.

The comparison judged SPC baked beans the best overall – well I could have told them that.

Judges said: “As one reviewer wrote: “Right flavour. Right texture.” I also appreciate the fact it’s the only baked bean product we tasted that was made in Australia.”

Baked beans might sound small beer when looking at the sort of things that should be supported by the National Reconstruction Fund and the Future made in Australia programme – think quantum, hypersonics and critical minerals.

But to me a food growing nation such as Australia must be a food manufacturing nation – it is an absolutely fundamental requirement of industry that we should be able to feed ourselves.

Unfortunately the baked bean debacle in mirrored across numerous food categories – my same local supermarket has only one locally made jam brand (my mother again, bless her) – Beerenberg – amid an array of imports.

We need to recognise we have lost even the most basic of manufacturing capabilities and back those few companies we have left actually making staples like baked beans in Australia.

Picture: SPC