Wattie's: a rant

Although a lot of things in New Zealand are very similar to their Irish or British equivalents, there is one thing that has bugged me since we landed here and isn't getting any better. That thing is Wattie's - what seems to be the New Zealand version of Heinz, and owned by the same company, Heinz Wattie's. You would imagine that being basically the same people and presumably working to the same recipe, their tomato sauce would taste the same everywhere, but no, it doesn't. Wattie's tomato sauce is foul in a way that I cannot even articulate.

Thankfully some shops here stock Heinz ketchup, so I've been able to sort myself out for something to squirt onto my chips and my mashed potato, but the Wattie's version is pervasive. Everything they make which contains tomato sauce or puree has that same unpleasant taste, and that includes soup, baked beans, and pizza. I've made a few attempts to find alternatives, but it's quite possible that they supply other brands too because I notice the same taste in non-Wattie's products.

It's not the tomatoes themselves - fresh tomatoes here are delicious. But there's obviously something that Wattie's do to their tomatoes after picking them that renders them, to my palate, inedible. Come on New Zealand, what's going on? Why do you like this stuff?