Wattie’s Largest Marketer of Locally Grown Frozen Vegetables

November 29, 2011

Wattie’s Stands by Its Record as the Largest Grower and Marketer of Locally Grown Frozen Vegetables – More Products than Any Competitor

Wattie’s says that it is proud of its record as the largest grower and marketer of NZ grown frozen vegetables.

“Wattie’s has grown and marketed NZ grown vegetables for its frozen product range longer than any other company in the market.

“In fact Wattie’s has more New Zealand-only frozen veg products (15 plus 22 NZ grown potato products) than any competitor in NZ, and ‘NZ Grown’ is proudly displayed on the packaging.

“Over 90% of vegetables and potatoes used in Wattie’s frozen vegetable products are home grown in NZ. These include: peas, carrots, baby carrots, corn, green & yellow beans, broadbeans, and potatoes.

“The balance is imported, allowing us to give our consumers more unique and exciting frozen vegetable variety mixes and blends than our competitors. The reasons are the ingredients for variety mixes may not be grown here (e.g., shitake mushrooms, baby corn); the ingredient pool is too small or not economically viable (e.g. sugarsnap peas, edamame beans); or can’t be processed here because of equipment needed (e.g. free flow spinach). These are sourced from countries including Belgium, China, Ecuador, Guatemala, Spain, Thailand and the USA.

“It is true that brands which offer the most limited range of products are not required to import. However, they cannot offer consumers exciting frozen vegetable variety mixes and blends.”

Wattie’s labelling is transparent when imported ingredients are used. Critically, the same stringent quality checks and validations are applied to imported ingredients that we use when sourcing raw materials locally. This is in addition to the framework and checks that the relevant Food Authorities apply to imports.

ENDS

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