Products on New Zealand shelves that appear to be from Samoa but are not, have prompted an awareness campaign among New Zealand's Samoan community.
Samoa complained to the New Zealand Consumer Commission last December over the labelling of several Asian products with Samoan imagery, but the Trade Commissioner for the Samoan Consulate, Fonoti Dr Lafita'i Fuata'i, says there has been no response so far.
The CEO of Consumer New Zealand, Sue Chetwin, says it's a Fair Trading Act issue, but the Commerce Commission does have jurisdiction to investigate.
Fonoti says it may be too hard to patent words and images that are in nature and in common usage, and an awareness campaign is now underway.
"Making people aware of the fact that a number of companies selling these products are not all genuine Samoan companies, especially coconut products are not from Samoa but from some other countries like Malaysia and the Philippines and Thailand."
The Trade Commissioner for the Samoan Consulate, Fonoti Dr Lafita'i Fuata'i.
