AT THE DELICATESSEN counter of my local Woolworths supermarket – which promotes itself as ‘the fresh food people’ – in the inner-Sydney suburb of Balmain, I saw some fillets of firm white-fleshed fish for sale. They were, said the caption on the tray, ‘Nile perch’ imported ‘frozen’ from Uganda. I found this hard to believe, but the counter-hand confirmed it. Yes, they were ‘fully imported’. Well, at least Woolworths says where its food comes from.

A week later I visited a small fish shop in the same suburb that sells a few fillets and shellfish. I asked for a handful of scallops, not noticing the caption. The man at the counter told me with some pride that they were ‘Japanese’.