Vegemite vs Marmite: could the made-in-NZ test be the decider?
Home » Blog » Sarah Marquet » Vegemite vs Marmite: could the made-in-NZ test be the decider?Could the classic Vegemite vs Marmite debate be solved at last? Made-in-NZ blogger Sarah Marquet gets to the bottom of who owns which spread—and which one is made in New Zealand.
I was talking to a friend in Australia the other night. She said, while looking at Vegemite in her local supermarket, she had noticed that the same-sized jar of Marmite was cheaper. I thought this was very cool so decided to check up on them.
According to Wikipedia, Vegemite is owned by the American company Kraft but is made in Australia. Marmite is owned by the Australian company Sanitarium, but is made in New Zealand.
But strangely, it also said Vegemite is made in New Zealand and showed a picture of a jar of Vegemite with the Made in New Zealand logo.
I wondered if buying one over the other would make any difference. Even though Marmite is marketed as a New Zealand icon, if both are made here it shouldn’t make any difference which one we choose to buy. Both are made by offshore companies but production here means they provide jobs for Kiwis, so both are putting money back into our economy.
I went to the supermarket to see if Marmite is cheaper here too. The jars were different sizes but, unexpectedly, it seems the prices are relatively similar. I thought Marmite would be cheaper than Vegemite here too, because Australia has to import it while we get it fresh from the factory.
Also, all the jars of Vegemite said 'Made in Australia'.
Confused by this I contacted Sarah Goffe of the Buy New Zealand Made Campaign, who in turn contacted Sanitarium. The response was that Vegemite is not made here. Sarah said the logo used on the picture supplied by Wikipedia is over ten years old, so Vegemite was once made here but no longer is.
So, unless I can find a ten-year-old jar of Vegemite for sale, it is off the shopping list!
A New discovery: Zerobag
A few days ago I managed to get my hands on a Zerobag. When the Zerobag team told me it would hold 16 bottles of wine I thought they were way over-estimating. As there wasn't even one bottle of wine in the house I raided the bookshelf. The team was right, that bag is strong!
The bags are made here from recycled parachutes and they definitely look better than those green bags from Countdown. They also pack down so small that they could almost lose themselves in a handbag.
