Growers of apples in Australia are calling on consumers to buy local produce as they launch a retail fightback against the introduction of imported apples.

Growers are branding locally grown fruit with an “Aussie Apples” sticker to make it easy for shoppers to choose home-grown apples. That could be as many as 1.6 billion Aussie apples featuring the united brand each year.

Fourth generation Aussie apple grower Brad Fankhauser said growers wanted to empower Australian families to support local growers and actively choose “Aussie Apples”.

“Identifying where produce comes from can cause a lot of confusion for shoppers. It’s regulation for produce to be clearly marked with its country of origin at the point of sale, but that’s not always the case,” said Mr Fankhauser.

Apple imports have been allowed into Australia, for the first time in 90 years, as a result of changes to government regulations by Biosecurity Australia. The first imports arrived in small volumes in January, with volumes expected to increase as the market is progressively opened to a number of apple producing countries.

An independent economic report by the Centre for International Economics has shown Australian apple growers could lose a third of their income as a result of apple imports from China, New Zealand and the US – a loss to the industry of around $140 million a year.

“Imports will have a huge impact on everyone in the industry. Like many other growers, we’ve been working for the past eight years to increase our production per hectare and ensure we are competitive. I think we are ready to take them on,” Mr Fankhauser said.

The first Aussie apples carrying the new sticker are starting to appear in supermarkets and green grocers with the roll-out of stickers to packing houses expected to be complete in the next few weeks.