CANBERRA, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- One of Australia's most renowned cherry growers has taken to social media to combat poor quality fakes being sold in Asia.
Tasmania's Reid Fruits, along with other top Australian growers, has been affected by counterfeit products being sold with their branding in Asia for years.
The culprits package low quality cherries in imitation Reid's boxes and sell them for up to 40 U.S. dollars per kilogram.
"The consumers are paying top dollar for our product, so it's obviously very disheartening for them when they open the box and the product doesn't meet their expectations," Reid Fruits Business Development Manager Lucy Gregg told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Saturday.
Reid has taken to printing intricate stickers that are put on the genuine boxes and incorporating QR codes onto the cartons bound for Asia.
The company has encouraged consumers to get in touch on social media to query suspected knock-off fruits.
"Each carton comes with a unique QR code which they can scan and that actually tells them that it's an authentic product," Gregg said.
"We work really closely with our importers and we actually ask them every time they see a counterfeit product or if they pick up some advertising on...some (social) media site to actually send it to us so we can follow it up.
"We can actually go back to them and say, 'No, if it hasn't got the sticker, if it hasn't got the QR code, if it hasn't got the named bag liner then it's not our product'.
"We're actually seeing less examples so that's a positive - it means that it is working."
