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  • 2021-10-28 (xsd:date)
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  • Food giant Simplot rejects rumours of Australian production plant closures (en)
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  • Facebook posts shared hundreds of times claim TV show Landline reported that US-based food giant Simplot was planning to close facilities in Australia that produce frozen vegetables. The claim is false; the company said the rumours were baseless, while Landline told AFP it ran no such story. This was shown on the program Landline on the ABC. Think about this and circulate to your family and friends, reads a Facebook post published on October 13 and shared more than 1,900 times. It claims that Simplot Australia , which owns brands such as Birds Eye, Edgell and John West, is not far from closing because a number of the other well-known Australian brands have moved their plants to New Zealand in order to capture the Chinese vegetable market. SHOULD SIMPLOT CLOSE, THIS MEANS THAT NO AUSTRALIAN GROWN FROZEN VEGETABLES WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ALL AND WE WILL BE RELYING ON FOOD GROWN TOTALLY OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA, the post warns. Screenshot of a Facebook post sharing the false claim, taken on October 28, 2021 Similar Facebook posts were shared here and here . However, the claim is false. Simplot Australia said it had no plans to close vegetable production facilities. There is no factual basis for the claim on Facebook that Simplot Australia 'is not far from closing', a spokeswoman told AFP. Simplot Australia is committed to its Australian-based vegetable processing facilities. In 2013, the company said two food processing facilities in New South Wales and Tasmania were at risk of closure, but this never happened. At the time, Simplot was able to work with its key stakeholders and its parent company, US-based JR Simplot, to support efficiency upgrades at the plants to help underpin their competitiveness, the spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, Landline -- a TV programme which covers rural issues and airs on Australia's ABC -- said the rumours circulating on Facebook were false. The show's executive producer Cathie Schnitzerling told AFP it has not done any stories about Simplot Manufacturing recently and neither has any story been brought to our attention. Landline previously debunked similar reports that surfaced in 2019. It pointed to a report it aired in 2013 about the two Simplot plants that were under threat of closure at the time, but which ended up staying open. (en)
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