Many Australian consumers are unable to make healthy food choices due to the existing food environments they are in, according to the new ‘Towards a state of the food system report for Australia’ report released by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and the University of Queensland.
In this report, the authors identified a number of troubling issues within the local food retail sector which have long been ‘overlooked’.
“Economic and geographic disparities in food access mean that not all Australians are served equally well by food retail environments,” they stated.
“Australia has geographic inequalities in access to food environments, with remote and urban Australians experiencing very different proximity to retailers and cost of food.”
A 2024 survey conducted by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had found that 34% of residents in remote areas reported that they had only one retail option, which unfortunately tended to lead to an increase in prices.
“The costs of running food distribution infrastructure, without economies of scale, in low-density populations can increase retail food costs – This can be particularly severe in rural and remote Indigenous communities,” they said.
“The thing is, food retailers are fundamental to Australia’s food distribution system, but they are not legally responsible for ensuring food security [whereas] public sector interventions are necessarily case-specific eg the Queensland local government would develop strategies targeted at Queensland only.”
Accessibility appears to be particularly challenging in relation to healthy food products such as fresh fruits and vegetables, which makes sense given the logistical challenges in transporting these items to rural areas.
“Healthy food is not close to home for everyone and the strong influence of [geographic proximity on where Australians source their food has very real health implications,” they said.
“For example, a higher ratio of unhealthy to healthy food outlets near home has been linked to a higher incidence of obesity in adults, while living closer to healthy food retailers has been linked with reducing the risk of children being overweight.”
Convenience the single biggest driver in grocery shopping
Australian food retail is very strongly dominated by large supermarket chains Woolworths and Coles – these make up 65% of the grocery market, followed by 10% held by ALDI and 7% by Metcash (IGA).
According to 2024 government data, food and beverage purchases in this year were made at 22,987 establishments, of which only 2556 were supermarkets run by ALDI, Coles or Woolworths – but about 85% of groceries in the country came from these major chains.
The reasoning behind this is not so much trust in any one chain, as it is the ease of accessing one of these outlets.
“Convenience seems to be the single greatest influence on where Australians source their food. It is at least as influential as low prices,” the authors said.
“Consumers reported that the most common reason for loyalty to one supermarket brand was it being the most convenient (71%), followed by another form of convenience – familiarity with store layout (61%), both of which ranked above belief that these sources of food were the cheapest (37%).”
This has further driven home the issue of access inequity in the country – as long as healthy foods are not easily and conveniently accessible to all consumers, it is unlikely that they will be able, or willing, to make the switch to healthier diets.
