More Americans than Aussies prefer Australian-made products

While it is well known that Australians claim to favour locally produced goods, more people in the US are likely to opt for brands with a Made in Australia label on them.

A study by Roy Morgan Research, which covered a number of products, including food, has shown that over 90% of Americans prefer Australian goods over their own. This figure drops to almost 80% in Asia, while products made in India or Indonesia lagged behind at just over 10%. 

Home-grown

The research, according to Roy Morgan’s Norman Morris, reinforce the value of the Australian-made angle when Australian companies set out to market home-grown product.

Whether it’s due to the success of the long-standing Australian Made campaign, a genuine quality issue or simply good old Aussie patriotism, an overwhelming majority of Australians are more likely to buy something if they know it’s made here.

"While there are slight variations, if we take a person's country of birth into consideration, Australian-made is still consistently more popular than products manufactured elsewhere. People born in the US are especially fond of locally-produced goods, sometimes even more so than those born here,” Morris added.

Not unexpectedly, the vast majority—88.5%—of Australians said they would be more likely to buy Australian-made products, but what is surprising is that this figure is lower than consumers from the United States and Canada.

Asian Decade

Given the Australian government’s emphasis on the so-called Asian Decade, it looks like it is a good time for food companies Down Under to redouble their efforts to secure import deals with China. For instance, 87.4% of Chinese respondents said they would be more likely to buy food produced in Australia.

Although people born in Asia are more likely to choose Chinese-made products than the average Australian, they still prefer products made in Australia over those made in China.

Have your say: Does it surprise you that Australian products are so highly coveted around the world? Let us know in the box below.