Why tweet about beans has landed Woolworths in trouble

Woolworths is in hot water after a Twitter statement declared imported beans were “far superior” to home-grown ones.

The furore erupted after ABC journalist Emma Fields took a photograph of shelves stacked with beans imported from overseas.

She then tweeted Woolworths, writing: “Seriously disappointed that all of these beans and peas for sale @woolworths are imported. Surely we can do better than that!”

The supermarket responded, saying: “Hi Emma, we’re sorry to hear about your disappointment towards our tinned beans.

“We aim to provide the best quality products to our customers and sometimes this means supplying imported products as they’re far superior.

“Nonetheless, we understand your frustration and we’ll be sure to pass your concerns to our relevant team for future considerations. Thanks for getting in touch and have a great day!”

Shocked, Fields wrote back: “Thanks, be sure to tell the ‘relevant team’ it would be great if they could support Australian farmers rather than the ones in Italy and America.

“Especially when many farmers in Aust (sic) are facing dry & tough conditions.”

Woolworths’ response has angered many Australian pulse crop farmers.

“I was actually quite shocked that they would have come out and said that, to imply that overseas products are superior to local products,” Victorian Farmers Federation vice-president Brett Hosking told the ABC.

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“Both major supermarkets have put a lot of work into extolling how much … they want to support Australian growers.

“Then to send a statement like that, that completely contradicts all that rhetoric, it’s really disappointing.”

Woolworths has since apologised to the customer in another tweet, writing: “We apologise for yesterday’s tweet – it does not reflect our view of Australian grown products.

“In fact 96% of all our fresh fruit and vegetables are proudly sourced from Australia.”

A spokesperson for the supermarket added: “Sometimes we do need to source products from overseas, but it’s always our first preference to source locally.”