Shoppers might loathe them but Australian growers have welcomed a delay in banning plastic stickers on fruit and vegetables.
South Australia was due to become the first state to ban non-compostable plastic produce (PLU) stickers from September.
That ban is now on hold with the state government opting not to impose an extra cost on SA producers during tough times.
Why use fruit stickers?
Australian Fresh Produce Alliance chief executive Claire McClelland said the stickers allowed easy tracing of any fruit’s origins, a requirement for producers.
“In the rare instance that there is a food safety incident, for example, they provide information that enables us to trace back that supply of fruit,”
she said.
The second key reason is easy variety identification and scanning at supermarket checkouts.
Shoppers may find them annoying but the little labels are a big deal for producers and supermarkets. (ABC South East SA: Elsie Adamo)
“If you consider, as a consumer buying a red apple, many varieties of red apples all look a bit similar and those PLU stickers actually help consumers at the check-out identify what fruit they’re buying,” Ms McClelland said.
“That’s really important from a production and sales perspective and being able to manage stock and understand what fruit is popular.”
Producers have been exploring more environmentally friendly PLUs, including laser etching.
But according to Ms McClelland, the best option now is to stick with stickers.
“Laser labelling is where the skin of the fruit is etched with the same information or similar information [as stickers],” she said, but that created issues of quality control, especially with produce that has an edible peel, and the speed of labelling.
“For industry, compostable stickers make the most sense in the long term.”
Compostable stickers ‘twice the price’
Adelaide Hills apple grower Joseph Ceravolo has already invested in compostable stickers.
Joseph Ceravolo said swapping to compostable stickers was not straightforward. (Supplied: Joseph Ceravolo Jr)
He said price was a challenge, with only a handful of Australian suppliers, and SA being a smaller producer of fresh produce nationally.
“The amount that was going to have to be produced for SA was so small it’s almost like a boutique item, which means that the cost of it was going to go up substantially,” Mr Ceravolo said.
“For us, it’s almost twice the price.”
Mr Ceravolo found challenges using the new stickers in existing machinery and said more were falling off due to adhesives used to comply with composting standards.
Produce stickers, like these on Royal Gala apples in a supermarket, can help to trace where the fruit has come from. (ABC South East SA: Elsie Adamo)
He welcomed a more national approach to a ban.
“Plastic stickers will become a thing of the past — it’s a matter of time,” he said.
“Being in a cost-of-living crisis and the cost of goods continuing to move up … primary production is a really difficult industry to be in. This does add an extra cost and layer of complexity.
“This is the next logical step to take in terms of reducing plastic in the industry, but it needs most of the major states to shift at the same time to make a level playing field for everybody and so we can guarantee supply.”
Benefit to national approach
SA Environment Minister Susan Close said the state would work with NSW to implement a ban at the same time, potentially reducing the cost of alternative stickers in a bigger market.
Stickers can help customers pick the right produce at supermarket checkouts. (ABC South East SA: Elsie Adamo)
“NSW already had a commitment that they would get rid of these plastic fruit stickers and move to compostable by 2030 — our discussion will be how much sooner than that can we go,” Ms Close said.
She said the pause would also mean less disruption for growers and shoppers.
“We’ve recognised that food producers are doing it pretty tough and are very concerned that the additional cost is going to make it difficult for them to continue to provide to SA markets,” she said.
“We will be able to get rid of these [stickers] which, admittedly, everybody hates … but I didn’t want to cause disruption in supermarkets for people wanting to buy products and I didn’t want to cause too much harm to our local producers either.”
