The bosses behind iconic Australian brands Weet-Bix, SPC, Mayver’s peanut butter, Norco milk and Sunshine Sugar have banded together to urge shoppers to look beyond the “Australian made” logo in a concerted push to stop profits from being “siphoned offshore” and keep local farmers in jobs.

Research conducted by farmer-owned dairy cooperative Norco found four in five shoppers (81 per cent) are actively buying products from an overseas company under the belief that it is Australian-owned.

“You just see things like a tomato sauce brand that says ‘Made in Australia’, but on the back it says it’s only made with 20 per cent Australian ingredients. And by the way, it’s a foreign-owned company,” said Norco chief executive Michael Hampson.

“That’s the level of confusion. It’s not like 10 per cent, 15 per cent; it is the overwhelming majority of people in this research that had bought a brand that they thought was Australian-owned, and it wasn’t.”

Many Australians make purchasing decisions by referring to the triangular “Australian Made, Australian Grown” logo of a gold kangaroo on a green background, which 99 per cent of Australians recognise, according to Roy Morgan data. However, the logo does not signal the product’s country of ownership.

More than half (56 per cent) of consumers said they just look for the logo to make purchasing decisions, and about a third (30 per cent) of shoppers have increased their support for what they believe to be Australian products. Two in three (66 per cent) claimed they would buy more Australian-owned products if that information was more readily available.

“I think many consumers see the kangaroo on the back of the pack, or that was made in Australia, and automatically assume that just because the product has been made in Australia, then it’s owned by an Australian company,” said Sanitarium executive general manager Todd Saunders.

The coalition of Australian business leaders are also concerned about the growing proportion of cheaper imported products entering the Australian market. For example, Australians ate 17 per cent more imported dairy products in the 2023 financial year, largely from New Zealand, where the cost of labour is lower. The country’s three biggest seafood players are majority owned by offshore giants after Tassal was acquired by Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke two years ago. Brazilian meat giant JBS acquired Huon Aquaculture in 2021. The third, Petuna, is 50 per cent owned by New Zealand company Sealord Group.