Berri orange juice Truly brand withdrawn

A juice company has withdrawn a product line as it came under fire for using foreign juice and packaging which consumers might think was Australian.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon had called on Berri to remove from shelves its Truly orange juice, saying it might mislead consumers about the origin.

He said fine print on the packaging revealed the fruit was from Mexico, but the Berri branding might lead people to assume it was Australian citrus.

Senator Xenophon and South Australian Riverland MP Tim Whetstone said they planned to lodge a complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Mr Whetstone said Japanese conglomerate Kirin Holdings which is part of the Lion now owned Berri and was ignoring local citrus growers.

"At the moment we're seeing citrus growers returning less than two cents per kilogram for their fruit, we're seeing citrus orchards being ripped out of the ground," he said.

"We're seeing an industry under siege at the moment because of these multinationals looking after their interests overseas and not looking after the product and the brand (Berri) that has driven this brand for the last 70 years."

In a statement released just after the MPs launched their public attack on the Berri juice product, Lion announced it was withdrawing the Truly brand from the market.

It said the product had not met performance benchmarks and would be discontinued but the company made no apology for investing in innovation to build the juice category in Australia.

Source: ABC News, 15 July 2013