Advice from ACCC

Question

Senator CANAVAN: How does someone new come in and compete with existing feta producers? Mr Mina: We're well aware of that, and that's why we fought as hard as possible on all of the key cheese lines that were of interest. On parmesan, the EU sought to contain us to grandfathering arrangements, and we fought back and won. On terms like brie, we fought back and won. On a whole range of cheeses, we have been able to protect continued use. Feta was one of 12 terms that we agreed to grandfather. Others are terms such as bologna, munich, nuremberg, bratwurst and tyrolean speck. There are terms outside of dairy that we've agreed to grandfather as well. Senator CANAVAN: Did you seek advice from the ACCC on the competition impacts of this clause? Mr Mina: We have sought the continued engagement of the intellectual property authorities in this country that manage our use of geographical indications. Senator CANAVAN: Just to be clear, did you seek the advice of the ACCC? Mr Mina: In respect of the GI elements, I'm not sure we did. We would have turned to our geographical indications experts. Senator CANAVAN: Maybe take that on notice. It clearly has a significant impact on competition here. If the recipe calls for feta, they're going to go to the shop and want to buy feta. It's going to be almost impossible for any company that doesn't currently supply feta to enter that market. That's quite the constraint. It's obviously not the biggest market in the country, but we've agreed to some pretty fundamental restrictions on our own markets, our own sovereignty, in this agreement, for, as the farming sector says, no meaningful access to the European market.