Laura Gould

Food mile adversaries would be well advised to move to Australia, where their consciences could be salved by the fact that very little of the fresh produce on sale is imported. Without a single exception, all of the products in the survey above were home-grown; and the retailers seem proud of Australia’s horticultural tradition.

However, eco-friendly advantages aside, it does not always pay to be quite so self-sufficient when it comes to the tricky business of fruit and vegetable production. The devastating Cyclone Larry, which swept through the Australian state of Queensland in March of this year, has taken its toll on the banana industry; bruised and battered fruit, on sale at inflated prices, are indicative of the damage this natural phenomenon has caused to the produce industry Down Under.

The Philippines Agriculture Secretary took advantage of the climatic disaster by refreshing his appeal to the WTO for Australia to allow banana imports from his country, ironically creating a few ‘food miles’ of his own by catching a long-haul flight to Geneva in order to state his case.

But the Australians have made it emphatically clear that they do not see hastily introduced import measures as the answer to their cyclone-induced banana shortage.

Either way, it just goes to show that, no matter what fresh produce companies do to protect themselves against the elements and work to the highest quality standards they possibly can, they are always, ultimately, at the mercy of Mother Nature.