Tasmania and the Northern Territory are the only states where Aldi doesn’t operate

Aldi has provided an update on the business’s Tasmanian plans. This is what the CEO said in the Senate inquiry into supermarkets.

Cut-price supermarket giant Aldi won’t save Tasmanians from astronomical grocery prices any time soon, with the CEO telling a Senate inquiry the company has no current plans for Tasmanian stores.

The Greens-led parliamentary probe is examining the price-setting and competition practices of Australia’s two major supermarket chains Woolworths and Coles amid allegations of corporate profiteering and price gouging of both consumers and suppliers.

During hearings on Thursday the inquiry heard from smaller supermarket players including Aldi.

Aldi CEO Anna McGrath said the business now had 590 stores Australia wide.

Ms McGrath said Aldi was the nation’s most affordable supermarket, with prices consistently 15 to 20 per cent lower than the two majors.

Ms McGrath said Aldi was able to keep checkout costs down without short-changing suppliers through an “extraordinarily efficient” business model.

Anna McGrath, ALDI Australia. Picture: Linkedin

Tasmania and the Northern Territory remain the only state or territory in Australia without a store from the German-founded grocery chain.

Greens Senator and committee chair Nick McKim grilled Aldi over its absence from the Tasmanian market.

“There’s one question on the lips of many Tasmanians, why don’t we have Aldi in Tasmania?” he said.

Senator Nick McKim at a senate hearing on supermarket prices. Picture: NCA NewsWire /Brendan Beckett

Ms McGrath said while there were many places in Australia including Tasmania where Aldi saw future opportunities, there were no stores currently planned in Tasmania.

“Tasmania, Far North Queensland, the distance and the complexities of the supply chain, it just makes it less easy. That’s not to say we don’t continuously review where we may expand in the future,” she said.

When asked by Senator McKim why Coles and Woolworths were able to operate in Tasmania while facing the same challenges, Ms McGrath again referred to Aldi’s “very different business model”.

“The way we are able to continue to invest in price is to keep our other costs as low as possible,” she said.

A Senate inquiry is examining Australia’s high supermarket prices. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

The ongoing Senate inquiry will scrutinise the impact of market concentration on food prices and the pattern of pricing strategies employed by the supermarket “duopoly” of Coles and Woolworths.

The dominance of the two supermarket chains, which control two-thirds of the market, will be placed on full show next Tuesday when executives from both chains front senators.

When hearings were held in Hobart last month, the committee heard of the rise in dumpster driving and shoplifting as vulnerable people struggled to afford food.

The Youth Network of Tasmania told the Hobart hearings a comprehensive survey of young people’s needs revealed one of the demographic’s biggest hurdles was accessing affordable and nutritious fresh food.