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Australian Native Foods

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Products: Bush tomato, Lemon aspen, Lemon myrtle, Anise myrtle, Muntries, Tasmannia pepper, Dorrigo pepper, Quandong, Warrigal greens, Wattle seed, Native currants, Riberry, Desert lime, Finger lime, Round lime, Kakadu plum, Davidson’s plum, Illawarra plum, Saltbush, Rivermint, Boab

Synopsis – Australian Industry

While many native plants have been identified as having market potential, most remain relatively commercially undeveloped. There are significant exceptions, such as:  the macadamia nut industry, estimated to be worth around $60 million a year; a native food processing firm successfully introducing processed native foods to a large supermarket chain; and various retail activities.  Since 1998 there has been a dedicated research and development program to address the issues associated with the emerging industry, including evaluation of promising plant varieties.

The industry is relatively difficult to define. There is potential for a very large number of products and a range of activities, including commercial propagation, intensive and semi intensive cropping, collecting in the wild, processing, value added products and retailing.  It has been estimated that in 2000, there were approximately 800 participants in the native food industry and around 85 per cent had income of less than $10,000 from native food activities.  Most respondents to an industry survey conducted in 2000 (around 90 per cent) were using organic production methods to grow multiple species. Other estimates put industry employment numbers at 500 full time and 500 part time workers.


Year

Gross value of Prod’n
$ ‘000

Exports 
$ ‘000

Imports
$ ‘000

Estimated number of participants

2007

6,828

na

00

800

Background

There is little information on total production and average price levels in the industry. The primary value of production, excluding macadamias but including value added activity, was estimated at around $5 million in 1996 and around $10 million in 2000.  Key problems in determining value of production include the large number of plants involved, the diverse activities and the ‘cottage industry’ nature of many operations.  While there has been growth in the apparent value of production in the industry from a low base, there are encouraging signs of development. 

Demand for several products has increased significantly, with strong growth in demand for lemon myrtle as the base for organic tea and the establishment of a range of processed native foods such as bush tomato and native pepper through major retail outlets.  Supplies of several native foods such as quandong, riberry, native lime and lemon myrtle, are set to expand with commercial plantings previously undertaken now reaching production. Harvests of some others are currently limited by market requirements.

The industry has a range of challenges for growth. While many products currently rely on novelty value as a key demand driver, a major issue remains establishing a more robust demand for the products and being able to supply to meet those requirements.  This in turn may require a different mix of supply systems because consistency of supply and price considerations are likely to assume greater importance with higher volumes.

The peak industry body is Australian Native Food Industry Limited (ANFIL), established in December 2006.
An important component of the Australian native food industries are indigenous Australians. The knowledge of the food and medicinal value of native plants are derived from indigenous Australians and they do much of the commercial harvesting of bush tomatoes and wattle seed. There are a number of initiatives to advance the development of Australia’s native food industries through the involvement of indigenous communities.  .

Bush tomato

The bush tomato (Solanum centrale) is native to the central areas of Australia with an annual rainfall of 150–300 millimetres (the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia) and is an important food to aboriginal populations in these areas.  The intense flavor of the bush tomato means it is largely used as a food flavouring, sauce or in chutneys.

The commercial harvest of bush tomatoes is gathered from the wild and increasingly from commercial plantings.  The annual bush harvest of bush tomatoes by Aboriginal communities in central Australia in 2005 has been estimated at 2–5 tonnes, with a return to gatherers of $12 a kilogram.

Davidson’s plum

There are two species of Davidson’s Plum: Davidsonia jerseyana, a threatened species that is native to northern New South Wales; and Davidsonia pruriens that is native to north east Queensland.  The fruit is bright burgundy in colour, sour plum-like in taste and varies in diameter from 2-5 centimetres.  The fruit is eaten fresh or is preserved.

Davidson’s plum is produced in small scale orchards in northern New South Wales and Queensland.

Lemon myrtle

Lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) is a tree that is native to the subtropical rainforests of Queensland.  The leaves have a high content of citral that gives a distinctive lemon-lime fragrance.  The leaves are dried or processed to extract an essential oil.  The dried leaves are used as a tea, potpouri or spice; the essential oil is used as a food and beverage flavouring, air freshener, disinfectant and in a range of body care products.
Since the early 1990s, around 1.4 million lemon myrtle trees have been established in plantations in Australia, mainly in Queensland but also in northern New South Wales. The trees are formed into hedges that can be mechanically harvested. 

The number of lemon myrtle trees established in Australia could produce 2100 tonnes of fresh leaf, equivalent to over 50 tonnes of lemon myrtle oil.  The farm gate price for lemon myrtle leaf has declined sharply as production has increased.

Native limes

There are seven native limes in Australia but the three that are used as bushfoods are:

  • Desert lime (Citrus glauca, previously called Eremocitrus glauca ) is a tree that that is native to the near desert west of Queensland and New South Wales;
  • Finger lime (Microcitrus Australasica), native to the subtropical rainforests of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland; and
  • Round lime (Microcitrus Australica), native to the rainforests of south east Queensland.

A plantation in Queensland has 3500 grafted desert lime trees that are trickle irrigated, with plans to plant a further 8500 trees over the next few years. At maturity, a desert lime tree can produce up to 40 kilograms of fruit annually.

Quandong

Quandong trees (Santalum acuminatum) occur naturally throughout the southern half of Australia but mostly in Western Australia and South Australia.  The quandong tree is parasitic on other trees; plantings in orchards require companion plantings.  The companion plantings may also be productive, such as acacias producing wattle seeds.

The quandong fruit is generally bright red in colour and contains a large stone that accounts for around 50 per cent of the total weight of the fruit in the wild but less than this in irrigated orchard plantings.  The somewhat tart fruit is very high in vitamin C and is a traditional food of indigenous Australians.  It is eaten fresh or made into a range of food products, particularly preserves.

Australian quandong production is sourced from wild harvest (particularly by indigenous Australians) and from orchards.  In 2001, there were around 26 000 quandong trees in orchards; the plantings were largely irrigated.  The expectation was that each irrigated quandong tree would, at maturity, produce 3 to 5 kilograms of fruit a year, equivalent to 0.75 to 1.2 kilograms of dried flesh.  However, the difficulties of managing quandongs have seen many of the orchards no longer maintained and as few as three orchards with a total of around 2000 trees were still operating in 2006.  It is uneconomic for the orchards to supply quandongs to the fresh market and instead they do their own processing.

In 2006, an estimated 10 tonnes of quandongs were gathered from the wild and a further 4 tonnes were harvested from orchards to a gross value of $350,000.

Tasmannia pepper

Tasmannia Pepper is derived from the leaves and berries of a common woody rainforest shrub or small tree, Tasmannia lanceolata, found in the wet forests of SE Australia and Tasmania, from sea level in the south to higher altitudes in the northern extent of the range, around the Hastings River catchment in NSW.
Growing to 4 -5 m in height, the plant has attractive crimson stems and leathery dark green leaves, and female plants (the species is dioecious) bear (sometimes prolifically) small deep purple to black pea-sized fruit, ripening in autumn – early winter.

The plant produces one or more flushes of new foliage each year, commencing in spring, when a cluster of flowers forms at the shoot apex. This is surrounded by a group of shoots which may extend up to 300mm during the early to mid summer period, and can carry 5 to 20 leaves before terminating in a prominent compound bud, (containing flower and shoot initials) by late autumn.

The species is dioecious, that is, male and female flowers are borne on different plants, only the female carrying fruit. In planning for commercial production, the choice of gender for propagation purposes will depend on the intent – leaf or berry production. There is very little published research on the reproductive biology of the species – several issues are in need of investigation – factors controlling flowering and fruit set being a priority.

Fresh berries are harvested March – May. Fresh berries are available from March until late June. Frozen and dried berries available all year.  Fresh and dried leaves are available all year round, best harvested between February and onset of flowering - late September in most areas.

Wattle seed

Acacia species are numerous and widely located throughout Australia.  Many acacia species produce seeds that are edible though there are some species whose seeds are toxic. Wattle seeds are eaten whole or ground into a flour.  Wattle seeds are high in protein and rate low on the glycaemic index, making them of value in diabetic and other specialty diets. The main edible wattle seed in Australia comes from Acacia victoriae.
The commercial harvest of wattle seed is mainly gathered from the wild but there is also some production from plantations.  The annual bush harvest of wattle seed by Aboriginal communities in central Australia is estimated at 3–6 tonnes, with a return to gatherers of $10 a kilogram.

Links  - Australian native foods