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Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation
Press Release - 3 November 2003
Value-adding Kakadu plums
wins major award
Value-adding native foods, such as Kakadu Plums and Mountain
Pepper Leaf, has resulted in Robins Foods being selected for the Rural Industries
Research
and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Value-Adding Award at the recent 2003
Rabobank Agribusiness Awards for Excellence.
Based in Melbourne, Robins Foods takes the unique flavours of Australian
native foods and combines them with the best ingredients and techniques of
Europe and Asia to create quintessential Australian food products.
Over the past two years Robins Foods has developed a native food supply chain
to ensure that increasing demand for native foods can be met in an environmentally
sustainable manner and that all “members” of the supply chain
benefit from chain development. A prime focus of Robins supply chain is the
formal inclusion of Aboriginal people within it and the creation of a new
company - “Indigenous Australian Foods Ltd”. IAF is a not-for-profit
company with 20 equal memberships available to Aboriginal-owned and controlled
entities. IAF is designed to offer its Aboriginal membership a commercial
entry point into the native foods industry within a culturally appropriate
context.
Foods are sourced from the extremes of arid desert, lush tropical rainforests
and alpine high country, with products created from Bush Tomatoes, Lemon
Aspen Berries, Wattleseed, Wild Rosella Flowers, Kakadu Plums, Wild Limes
and other native foods.
Robins Foods produces a high-quality, accessibly priced range of native food
products, including prepared sauces, chutneys, dressings, jams and herbs.
The company’s flagship brand – “Outback Spirit” is
available nationally in all Coles Supermarkets.
Other ranges, including Robins Bush Foods and Hot Oz, are available in major
food halls and specialty delicatessens. The company currently exports to
giant UK retailer Sainsbury's (approx 250 stores) and are currently developing
market entry into other European markets including France, Germany and Ireland.
Robins Foods also exports to the Middle East, Singapore and Chile.
United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development - Joannesburg
26 August - 4 September
2002
Rita Nungala gathers the same wild foods that have sustained the Aboriginal
people of the Tanami Desert for centuries. But unlike the food collected
by her ancestors, some of the bush tomatoes that fill Rita's basket will
travel
far from her central Australian home, to store shelves in the United Kingdom,
Germany and Singapore.
Rita lives in the Laramba Community, an Aboriginal district in the Australian
outback that produces the intensely flavored native produce known locally
as "bush food." Bush food is becoming popular with urban Australian
consumers in part through the efforts of companies like Coles Supermarkets,
which promotes it in its stores.
By gathering these naturally growing foods from the desert and selling them
to local producers, Rita and roughly 200 local women are earning money for
themselves and establishing a beachhead for their Aboriginal community in
the global economy.
"
We have a unique opportunity to develop this industry in partnership with
the Aboriginal people, unlike other industries like mining and agriculture," says
Juleigh Robins, co-owner of Robins Australian Foods, a company that buys
food from Rita's community. "However, if the Aboriginal people are
not included at this stage, they'll be left behind as usual."
In an attempt to ensure that they do not get left behind, Robins and Coles
both have established programs designed to preserve the position of Aboriginal
communities in the native foods market.
Robins, which sells its products in Australia and throughout the world,
recently founded Indigenous Australian Foods (IAF), a not-for-profit company
that is
70% owned by its Aboriginal suppliers and 30% owned by Robins. Juleigh and
her partner, Ian Robins, established IAF to recognize the informal supply
chain that they had built between their company and Aboriginal communities.
Robins obtains wild foods for its native products, which include sauces,
chutneys and wild herbs, from these Aboriginal suppliers.
Robins now buys all of its native food ingredients through IAF and pays
a 10% premium on all purchases. This premium flows directly to the Aboriginal
owners, which distribute the funds back to the local communities. To help
market and preserve the integrity of the native foods, IAF is developing
an
accreditation system to identify and label products made with ingredients
from Aboriginal enterprises.
Efforts to promote native foods were given a boost by the Coles Indigenous
Food Fund, which the supermarket chain founded in 2001 with an initial grant
of $20,000. Coles is donating 25 cents to the fund for every native food
product it sells, and three of its suppliers ó including Robins ó have
agreed to contribute a portion of their own native food profits. It's estimated
that the fund will raise $100,000 this year.
This money will be given to Aboriginal communities to improve harvesting
and cultivation practices. Such investment is critical as native foods become
popular, since the market's growth will soon outstrip current supply. As
a
result, food-makers are likely to seek out native foods cultivated through
commercial farming, as opposed to traditional gathering methods. Money from
the Indigenous Food Fund is being spent to supply Aboriginal communities
with equipment such as seed-cleaning and grinding machines and roast ovens,
which
are needed to process native foods like wattleseeds.
While some local groups were skeptical at first about the intentions of
the giant supermarket chain, the fund already has sponsored six development
projects
with the $60,000 raised thus far. "We are trying to enable indigenous
communities to become economically independent," says Chris Mara, a
Coles spokesperson.
The growing demand for bush foods is producing benefits that go beyond the
strictly economic, however. The expanding market gives gatherers like Rita
the opportunity to preserve a way of life that is central to traditional
Aboriginal society. In addition, as urban Australians become exposed to
native foods,
they are also exposed to a part of Aboriginal culture.
"
Most Australians don't have any real contact with Aboriginal people," says
Juleigh Robins. "Native food is sort of a bridge. Making it accessible
is a great way to get people to understand more about Aboriginal culture."
Creative initiatives like Indigenous Australian Foods and the Coles Indigenous
Food Fund will be highlighted as global best practices at the United Nations
World Summit on Sustainable Development, which will convene on 26 August
in Johannesburg. The summit will bring together world leaders, non-governmental
organizations, businesses and other groups to discuss ways to improve people's
lives while conserving the world's natural resources.
www.un.org/works/sustainable/
