Australians love their food, but it seems that their fondness for culinary delights comes at a hefty cost – both to their wallets and to the environment. A recent report from the progressive think tank, The Australia Institute, has revealed a shocking truth: Aussie households are wasting almost $20 billion a year on discarded food, which is roughly equivalent to the weight of 152 Sydney Harbour Bridges.
Meanwhile, retailers are reaping over $1 billion in profits from this simple act of food wastage. This unsettling revelation comes at a time when grocery giants are reporting massive profits, all while ordinary Australians grapple with the soaring cost of living and increasingly expensive grocery bills.
In August, Woolworths, one of Australia’s leading supermarket chains, made headlines by announcing a staggering $1.62 billion after-tax profit for the year ending in June – a substantial 4.6 percent increase from the previous year.
This eye-popping profit margin highlights a stark contrast between the prosperity of retailers and the financial strain endured by the average Australian household.
Coles also reported a 4.8 percent increase in its profits for the 2021-22 fiscal year, achieving a net profit of $1.1 billion.
According to findings by researchers from The Australia Institute, Australian households discard a staggering 7.6 million tonnes of food annually. To put this into perspective, that quantity is equivalent to the weight of 152 Sydney Harbour Bridges, which collectively weigh 50,000 tonnes.
In their report titled “Food waste in Australia And how supermarkets profit from it,” the researchers assert that this squandered food translates to a loss of $19.3 billion for households. On average, this amounts to $2,000 or $25,000 per household.
The report scrutinized data on food wastage from the 2018-19 period and also took into account subsequent reports from the National Food Waste Strategy Feasibility Study, which was commissioned by the federal government two years ago. The analysis uncovered that food retailers are reaping an annual profit of $1.2 billion from this discarded food.
The report explains, “If we consider the industry’s average profit rate of 6.1 percent and assume that the $19.3 billion worth of food wasted by households generated this average profit, then the profit generated from the discarded food amounts to $1.2 billion.” It’s crucial to highlight that this $1.2 billion solely represents the profit gained by food retailers from food wastage.
