Vegemite is Australian made but is owned by the American company Kraft. According to Wikipedia Vegemite is also made in New Zealand, but it is still owned by Kraft. Marmite here though is unique to New Zealand (British made marmite uses a different recipe). It is made in Christchurch by Sanitarium which was founded in Australia and is surprisingly owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Is there any difference then? Marmite is marketed as a New Zealand icon and it does seem more New Zealanders prefer it to Vegemite. If both Vegemite and Marmite are made for offshore companies though should we be supporting one over the other?
Sanitarium is more local so it seems to make more sense to support them over Kraft. If both can wear the "Made in New Zealand" tag though, is there any difference? Some amount of the money we pay for the product will go back to Sanitarium and Kraft but some will remain here in the pockets of their employees.
I went down to my local supermarket to see if I could get my hands on some NZ made Vegemite but all the jars had “made in Australia” on them.
I contacted Sarah Goffe of the Buy New Zealand Made Campaign who in turn contacted Sanitarium to see if they make Vegemite on behalf of Kraft. The response was that Vegemite IS NOT made here. Sarah said the logo used on the picture supplied by Wikipedia is over 10 years old so Vegemite was once made here but no longer is. I also went to the supermarket to check the Vegemite range, all said "made in Australia".
So, unless I can find a 10 year old jar of Vegemite, it is off the menu too.
2 comments:
Hi Sarah, the Commerce Commission only hands out penalties if someone complains, and they investigate, and find the claim made on the product was substantially incorrect -- "misleading and deceptive" are the words they use.
It will be interesting to see if you strike anything this year that you think might be worthy of a complaint.
Personally I've always preferred Marmite. No question, it's better.
L.
Hey Sarah,
I came across your blog postings from a link on the 'Buy NZ' made website and your experiment into buying 100% NZ made products captured my attention.
I'm a strong believer of 'Buy NZ' and in the past have focused my business efforts to supporting our local economy. As a current post graduate student of business management the whole practise of 'globalization' is a definite concern. Anyways, that’s for another time...
Good on you for conducting the experiment, I'll be following with much interest as your postings this far has changed my consumer influence, as little as one person can, to purchasing 'Challenge' petroleum :)
PS: Have eaten both for years but more so Marmite of recent, now it’s a no-brainer.
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