Australasia's home for timber news and information

Why buy Australian manufactured goods?

The Australian Forest Products Association (AFPA) has produced a short YouTube video to remind people to buy Australian made product. Source: Timberbiz

Be it as mundane as a toilet roll or ream of copy paper, purchases of Australian made product fund Australian jobs and support Australian families and communities.

AFPA members represent the full value chain of the forest and forest products industries in Australia from growing trees to processing to producing paper, tissue and newsprint.

In all, some 80 000 Australians gain a livelihood from these businesses, largely in regional communities.

“It is vital that consumers, both mums and dad shoppers, as well as Governments and large companies, really understand ‘true value’ when they make their purchasing decisions,” said chief executive officer Ross Hampton.

“We need to consider the flow-on benefits from buying Australian manufactured as well as the price on the box.

“When we buy Australian we are also supporting rural communities through wages to workers but also in a myriad range of other ways; corporate sponsorships for sporting teams, children boosting numbers at small schools, cars being serviced by local mechanics and so on.

“Manufacturing also provides work in regions for apprentices and high-skilled occupations. These are real, year round, jobs.

“Tourism is often a useful additional string to a community’s bow, but is highly seasonal and depends entirely on accessing discretionary spending.

“Paper and tissue manufacturers have a massive regional presence in places like Millicent in SA, Maryvale in Victoria and Albury in NSW and, as consumers we have the power to keep these communities prospering by buying Australian manufactured products,’ said Hampton.

The video can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZN5lwqAW2E