VFF president Emma Germano tells pizza giants to show respect

VFF president Emma Germano says pizza giants like Domino’s need to show farmers respect by sourcing their produce locally.

Pizza giants including Domino’s need to source their toppings locally instead of bypassing Australian cheese, the Victorian Farmers Federation president says.

Emma Germano and other agricultural leaders have expressed disappointment with some of the nation’s big pizza chains for not disclosing their use of United States-sourced cheese.

She said the move undercut Australia’s dairy farmers and processors at a time of economic strain for the sector.

“Show some respect to the country you are operating in,” Ms Germano said.

“Have a locally-sourced ingredients policy. It’s what Australian customers expect.

“That goes not just for the cheese they put on the pizza, but all the other toppings – Australian meat, Australian veg.

“It’s not just that it’s sneaky – it’s also poor form.”

Last week, The Weekly Times surveyed 10 of the nation’s biggest pizza makers – from takeaway titans such as Domino’s and Pizza Hut to frozen labels such as McCain.

Many including the companies behind Pizza Hut, La Porchetta and Bubba Pizza kept quiet when contacted about the origin of their cheese.

Dairy Farmers Victoria president Mark Billing said the use of American cheese for Australian pizza consumers was undercutting Australian farmers.

“Pizza is big business. You look at any suburb or town around Australia – there’s pizza joints like Domino’s in the main street,” the Colac region farmer said.

“Even locally in Colac, there’s four or five pizza outlets. It’s bad news for Australian dairy because cheese imports are ballooning and we’re importing all this produce when we make some of the best dairy products right here in Australia.

Earlier this year, Dairy Australia records showed for the first time, the value of the nation’s cheese exports has been matched by imports.

DA records confirmed supermarket and hospitality sector demand for cheap New Zealand and United States cheese pushed imports up from $843 million in 2022 to $1 billion in 2023, while Australian exports stagnated at $1bn.

Mr Billing said the Domino’s decision to ship in American cheese was also an environmental bad look.

“It needs to be called out for the carbon miles or carbon kilometres that are wasted to ship all that cheese from the other side of the world,” he said.

“It’s far more environmentally sustainable for the pizza chains to source their cheese locally.”

One of the few pizza giants to answer questions was Domino’s – which is Australia’s largest pizza outlet with more than 700 shopfronts nationwide.

A Domino’s spokeswoman said the pizza chain had a contract with Leprino Foods, which supplies mozzarella to more than 3800 stores internationally, including its Australian outlets.

“In September 2023, Domino’s announced it would extend its 10-plus year global partnership with Leprino to deliver cheese for more than 260 million pizzas and other menu offerings each year, from world-class production facilities based in America and the United Kingdom,” she said.

Retail Food Group operates two of Australia’s biggest pizza chains – Crust and Pizza Capers

RFG chief marketing officer Tanya Watt said “circa 90 per cent of the cheese used” by the two pizza brands was Australian made and sourced.

“The balance is sourced from the US,” Ms Watt said.

“This cheese is used for a specific product line and is not currently available in Australia despite trying multiple major manufacturers.

“While we have no formal policy regarding cheese procurement, Australian provenance is an important aspect of our evaluation criteria when sourcing cheese.

“Dairy as a general category continues to be impacted by inflationary pressures globally and we work closely with our suppliers to manage this.”