Foreword

The plan identifies the key objectives for the R&D investments that RIRDC will make in coming years on behalf of the bushfood industry and the Commonwealth Government.

The plan stems from extensive consultation with the industry associations listed in the plan and also embodies input from individuals within the bushfood industry and the research community. It should be regarded as a modifiable document in the sense that the industry is a young one comprising people with diverse views and values whose thoughts on research needs and priorities are likely to change during the life-span of the plan. This being so the Corporation would welcome suggestions for ensuring that the plan really does reflect the values and needs of the bushfood industry. This applies particularly to indigenous people who house a special interest in the industry.

The plan will be distributed widely by the Corporation (including insertion in its website (http.//www.rirdc.gov.au) and will be used to guide on going R&D investments. It is consistent with RIRDC's Strategic Plan (1997-2002) and will be implemented in accordance with the provisions of the Primary Industries and Energy Research and Development Act 1989.

Peter Core
Managing Director
Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation

1. Purpose of the Plan

• to present the rationale for the bushfood R&D activities that RIRDC will support and manage on behalf of the commonwealth government and the industry;
• to provide clear signals to the industry, to governments and to the research community regarding R&D needs and priorities for the period 1998-2002; and
• to encourage discussion that will enable the needs of the industry to be further defined and responded to as the industry gathers momentum.

It is an interim plan in the sense that it represents an early step towards an R&D program intended to serve the industry well during the early years of the 21st century. It has a lifespan of only four years because it is envisaged that research needs and priorities will change as the industry develops. In addition to revising the plan in three to four years, it may also be timely to consider whether the scope of the program should be broadened to include both plant- and animal-based bushfood.

For RIRDC, the plan is the latest link in the chain connecting:

• the Greening Australia and RIRDC-sponsored Bush Food Seminar held at Bangalow in February, 1994;
• its support for the activities of the Australian Native Bushfood Industry Committee (ANBIC) from 1995 to 1996;
• its sponsorship of the ANBIC 1996 Conference "Culture of the Land; Cuisine of the People", and, most recently;
• the commissioned report of February, 1997 by Caroline Graham and Denise Hart entitled "Prospects for the Australian Native Bushfood Industry".

A profitable and environmentally sustainable plant-based Australian bushfood industry that is founded on an international reputation for the reliable supply of consistently safe and high quality food backed by effective and imaginative promotional and educational material, and that recognises Aboriginal culture, food practices and involvement.

 Background to the Industry
While bushfood has been the staple of Australia’s aboriginal people for millennia, the impetus for the establishment of a bushfood industry has been attributed to pioneers such as Vic Cherikoff and to the restaurateurs Jean-Paul Bruneteau and Jennifer Dowling who introduced bushfoods into their menus during the early and mid-1980s (1). In addition to being novel and Australian, such food was perceived to be clean, healthy, organic and environmentally friendly. TV programs such as The Bushtucker Man have done much to raise public awareness of bushfood in subsequent years, albeit from a somewhat different perspective.
 

Size and nature of the industry

The industry is small, fragmented and frequently undercapitalised (2). Bush harvesting is the dominant means of production but cultivation is expanding. Some participants favour the production of bushfood by mainstream agricultural and horticultural methods whereas others prefer alternative approaches that are perceived to be more environmentally friendly than conventional methods. Bushfoods comprise only a part of the overall business activity for many of those involved in the industry.

The gross value of the industry was estimated to be $10-12 million in 1995/96 (2,3). The gross value of the industry includes subsistence use, wild harvest, farm production, a wide range of value adding activities and a variety of endusers including restaurants, retailers and other hospitality providers. The farmgate and ex-nursery gross value of production is thought to be about $5 million. Average returns across the industry are reputedly low.
 

Participation and structures

There are approximately 500 active participants in the industry (excluding a very significant number of Aboriginal participants through the Land Councils and other groups. They operate in all states and territories.

The industry comprises:
 

wild harvesters	hospitality providers
nursery operators	retailers
commercial producers of raw produce	food service operators, and
processors of raw produce	tourism operators.

They operate as single-purpose enterprises, networks, vertically integrated operations and wholesale/merchandising enterprises. Only two of these businesses have an annual turn over of more than one million dollars.

The most significant crops and end-uses

In terms of market demand in 1997, the most commercially significant foods (3) were:
 

bush tomato	muntries / muntharies
Davidson’s plum	Riberries
lemon aspen	quandong
lemon myrtle	warrigal greens, and
mountain pepper	wattleseed.

Except for a small amount of fresh produce going to restaurants, the bulk of the domestic produce is dried, frozen or further processed, often in combination with non-bushfood ingredients, into a wide range of value-added foodstuffs (2,3). Gift and specialty shops are important outlets in this sector of the market. The food service sector is becoming increasingly involved but uptake by processors servicing the larger retail and wholesale food service market is currently limited (3).

There is significant interest from export markets in Europe and North America. This interest is fostered by the success overseas of Australian wines, meats and seafood. Demand from Asia is currently small.

The formation of industry associations such as the Australian Native Bushfood Industry Council Limited, the AridLand Growers Association, the Australian Bushfood Federation Inc., the Australian Quandong Industry Association Inc., the Australian Rainforest Bushfood Industry Association Inc., Native Foods SA, the Queensland Bushfood Co-operative, the Southern Bushfood Association, and Southern Values Bushfood Association (SA) are welcome signs of the increasing maturity and professionalism of the industry at both national and regional levels. This is also true for the excellent newsletters being produced by some Associations.

4 Key issues for the Industry

Market focus

As with many young industries, understanding of existing and potential markets for bush food and the forces that drive these markets is often poor. This situation can lead to participants not focussing their energies and scarce resources on the potentially most rewarding sectors of the market. This issue is particularly important now that the potential supply of some foods is thought to outstrip likely demand (3).

Safety and food standards

There is an increasing trend for both domestic and export markets to seek suppliers who consistently provide safe and good quality food. Environmental concerns are also of increasing importance as consumers expect to buy food that is clean and green. To maximise its market advantage, bushfood enterprises must be in a position to assure buyers and consumers that it recognises such values, endorces HACCP practices and does indeed provide produce that is safe, of good quality and produced in an environmentally responsible manner.
 

Profitable and sustainable production systems

In the long term, there is a need to devise and adopt production systems that are both profitable, ecologically sustainable and viable in terms of end-user price. The ecologically sustainable management of bush sources and the domestication, improvement and cultivation of "wild" species and forms are important facets of this issue as is the responsible use of water, soils, and agricultural chemicals.
 

Information and communication

In spite of valiant efforts by the industry associations and government bodies, such as RIRDC, there is a paucity of information of all sorts about the industry and within the industry. What information there is often unevenly distributed. This situation must be rectified if industry participants and would-be entrants are to be enabled to make informed business decisions. Tackling this problem will require the generation of new knowledge, the analysis and more critical use of existing knowledge, the establishment of a database, and improved communication via the Internet, industry networks and newsletters, research reports, and training courses.
  

5. The R&D Program for 1998-2002

• Market focus
• Safety and food standards
• Profitable and ecologically sustainable production
• Information and communication

Research Ethics

It is a prerequisite for all research carried out under this R&D Plan that the knowledge of Aboriginal people and their association with the land and the plants on which the bushfood industry is built must be recognised and respected. It is a further requirement that where information is provided to researchers by community Elders and other Aboriginals, such information must be identified and codified. Where direct, identifiable, financial rewards result from the application of such knowledge, the community providing such knowledge must receive a proportion of such rewards.

Funding priorities

Consultation with the industry has identified understanding and strengthening markets and profitable and ecologically sustainable production as priority issues, with each of these needing to be underpinned by a strengthened human resource base.

Objectives and strategies

The program will support R&D aimed at:

• Understanding, strengthening and developing markets
• Improving existing products and developing new ones
• Enhancing the ability of the industry to meet appropriate safety and food standards
• Improving production efficiency while maintaining ecological integrity
• Enhancing the human resources of the industry

The following pages set out strategies to address these objectives and provide targets and performance indicators by which progress can be judged. They seek to provide general guidance rather than detailed prescriptions about what needs to be done and how to do it.

The objectives should be regarded as complementary and having flexible boundaries that enable the key issues for the industry to be addressed effectively via more than one strategy.

The effectiveness of the program will depend greatly on the industry’s support for and involvement in the program both at the design stage and during its carriage.

The goals here are to seek out and disseminate information on and to foster understanding of existing and potential markets for bushfood. This will enable market trends, opportunities and constraints to be recognised and responded to in both marketing and production.

Strategies

• Characterise and evaluate the nature and economics of current and potential domestic and export markets for bushfood, with particular reference to market driving-forces, opportunities, and constraints.
• Understand current market perceptions and expectations of bushfood in terms of image, quality, safety and market descriptors.
• Identify and prioritise specific opportunities for increased uptake of bushfood and for value adding.
• Devise strategies for addressing perceived market opportunities, including regional differentiation, that will maximise the value of the current product portfolio and help establish new products.
• Investigate potential regional markets based on regional cuisine and promotion
• Explore opportunities for co-marketing bushfood with other Australian industries and products.

• By market sector, analyse and disseminate findings on market perceptions, regional differences, opportunities, and constraints by 1999.
• Strategies for exploiting opportunities in place by 2000.
• Increased numbers and diversity of bushfood products on market by 2000.
• Information on existing and potential markets available to all sectors of industry from 1998 onwards.

• Availability, quality and timeliness of market information.
• Level of sales to existing and new markets, nationally and regionally.
• Change in product formats.

The goals here are to help the industry to meet market needs, to address opportunities, to improve product quality and supply (both raw and processed), and to add value.

Strategies

• Access, disseminate and build on existing knowledge and species.
• Preserve, explore and commercially protect the genetic resource base of bushfood.
• Where appropriate bring commercially valuable or promising varieties and species into cultivation.
• Improve the market-fit and productivity of existing and potential commercial species through selection, breeding and improved postharvest technology.
• Encourage the involvement of the nursery industry in developing and supplying new and improved crops.
• Devise ways of adding value through novel and improved processing, presentation and packaging.

• Significant locations for bushfood identified and explored by 2002.
• R&D focussed on crops and products with greatest potential commercial benefit by 1998.
• Selection and breeding programs established by 2000.
• Research and Development focussed on improvements to bushfood varieties and cropping techniques.
• Increased industry involvement in the development and commercialisation of new crops and products.

Performance indicators

• Level of conservation and sustainable management of reserve base.
• Number and volume of new crops and products entering market.
• Quantity and variety of bushfoods as components of main stream food items.
• Improved shelf life.
• Availability of information on new crops and new products.
• Level of industry involvement in innovation.

The goal here is to maximise market advantage by enhancing the ability of the industry to comply with the ANZFA Food Standards Code or other appropriate codes (for example, SQF 2000TM Quality Code:1995). Inter alia, the Code comprises the objectives of protecting public health and safety, providing adequate information to enable consumers to make informed choices, and providing minimum value-added product standards to prevent fraud and deception.

Strategies

• Identify the species most likely to present food safety problems.
• Where appropriate and drawing on traditional uses, devise processing procedures that will render species of concern safe for food application.
• Explore the industry’s needs and priorities for HACCP during production, storage and handling, processing and distribution.
• Devise and disseminate strategies for helping the industry to establish and meet the relevant codes written in context of environmentally sustainable production.
• Establish industry-driven quality standards and descriptions for major traded products.
• Support training in safety and quality standards for industry members.

Targets

• Review food safety status and research needs of major traded species by 1999.
• Complete and disseminate review of HACCP needs and priorities by 1999.
• Develop guidelines and HACCP - based training manuals by 1999.

Performance indicators

• Availability of information on the food safety of major traded species.
• Availability of information on the implications of safety and quality standards for the production and processing sectors of the industry.
• R&D initiated that addresses safety and quality issues.

The goal here is to develop and foster production systems that are profitable and ecologically sustainable.
 

Strategies

• Access and build on existing knowledge.
• Support the better management of currently wildharvested crops and the development of appropriate policy.
• Devise new and improved propagation methods.
• Improve the market-fit, quality and productivity of bushfood.
• Provide environmentally friendly agronomy and pest control packages that support sustainable monoculture, polyculture, organic, and other production systems.
• Integrate bushfood production into other farming and business activities.
• Provide improved practices and technologies for conserving, picking, sorting and handling wildharvested produce.
• Devise means of improving product quality and consistency.
• Improve management and labour efficiency.
• Disseminate technical and economic information on existing and improved production systems.

Targets

• Environmentally acceptable management and production packages developed for major crops by 2002.
• Critical economic and technical analyses of existing and prospective crops available to industry.
• Guidelines and standards for improving and monitoring product quality and consistency established by 2000.

Performance indicators

• Availability of user-friendly production information and costings.
• Any strain, variety or species from which a bushfood product is derived must show a stable or improved status with respect to its rarity or degree of threat of extinction. Such status must be considered both locally and nationally.
• Level of productivity per unit of input.
• Availability of and level of adherence to quality standards and monitoring systems.
• Knowledge, stability and biodiversity of the ecosystems from which bushfoods are harvested.

The goal here is to strengthen the human resource base of the industry by improving access to information, by encouraging collaboration and a common ethos, and by supporting training.

Strategies

• Foster greater involvement of Aboriginal people in the industry.
• Develop a readily accessible database on bushfood, industry structure and participation.
• Encourage networking, workshops and the production of newsletters.
• Nurture a quality ethos.
• Support nationally focussed but regionally developed education and training in business planning and in bushfood production and processing.
• Encourage industry involvement in and financial support for R&D.
• Encourage collaborative research and strengthen the industry’s R&D base.

Targets

• Industry involved in targeting and supporting R&D by 1998.
• Establish a bushfood data base by 1999.
• Industry-driven education and training courses initiated by 1999.

Performance indicators

• Level of access to database.
• Level of collaboration between the various components of the industry.
• Level of industry involvement in R&D.

• James, P. "Bushfoods........A vision for the future". In "Bush Food Seminar Papers & Proceedings", February, 1994. 4 pages.

• ANBIC. "Business and Marketing Paper". Proceedings "Culture of the Land; Cuisine of the People" Conference, May, 1996. 40 pages.

• Graham, C. and Hart, D. "Prospects for the Australian Native Bushfood Industry". RIRDC Research Paper No.97/22. 74 pages.

Appendix 1 SWOT analysis for the bushfood industry

Strengths

• unique and novel product tastes / flavours / intensities
• clean and green production environment, generally with abundant land and water
• broad biodiversity and species-base to draw on
• Aboriginal knowledge and involvement
• strongly committed industry participants with diverse skills
• natural monopoly, without overseas competition

• fragmentation and lack of collaboration within industry
• undercapitalisation and too many species to chose from.
• communication mechanisms rudimentary and planning often poor
• generic market information scarce or lacking
• potential imbalances between supply and demand
• lack of substantial existing markets
• variations in product supply and quality
• comprehensive agronomic information unavailable
• lack of information on and understanding of food safety issues (safety, product handling and food preparation)
• research-base very small

• create new wealth and employment, nationally and regionally
• exploit areas where food is not currently produced and establish new cropping industries
• combine cropping with environmental remediation and conservation
• search for, create and exploit new markets at home and abroad
• use the expertise of the established food industry in adding value to bushfoods
• interact positively with and strengthen other Australian industries, such as tourism
• foster an interest in Australian tradition and culture

• lack of species-specific safety data, fact sheets and standards acceptable to end-users and regulators
• lack of promotion and training (from grower through to consumer)
• inappropriate price structures and opportunity hunters
• underinvestment arising from lack of recognition of the industry as a sound and professional business activity
• restriction of access to and use of genetic resources and bush supplies

Appendix 2: Industry Contacts
 
 

Australian Native Bushfood Industry Council Limited  Contact person: Dion Dorwood  Address: 6 Bond Street  West Hendmarsh SA 5007  Telephone: (08) 8346 8022  Contact person: Russell Holden  Address: PO Box 641  Penrith NSW 2751  Telephone: (02) 4733 8064  Arid Lands Growers Association Inc  Contact person: Graham Herde  Address: Nectar Brooks Station via  Port Augusta SA 5700  Telephone: (08) 8634 7077  South East Sustainable Bushfood Industry Group  Contact person: Terence Carpenter  Address: 443 Kameruka Lane  Candelo NSW 2550  Telephone: (02) 6493 2227  Australian Quandong Industry Association Inc.  Contact person: Graham Herde  Address: PO Box 236  Upper Sturt SA 5156  Telephone: (08) 634 7077  Facsimile: (08) 634 7077

Aust. Rainforest Bushfood Industry Association Inc.  Contact person: Margaret Bailey  Address: PO Box 147  Uki NSW 2484  Telephone: (02) 6679 9152  Facsimile: (02) 6679 9179  Queensland Bushfood Co-operative Ltd  Contact person: David Cooke  Address: PO Box 358  Beerwah QLD 4519  Telephone: (07) 5494 6037  Southern Bushfood Association  Contact person: Gil Freeman  Address: 21 Smith st  Thornbury VIC 3071  Telephone: (03) 9416 7150  Fax: (03) 9416 7150  Email: gilf@compost.apana.org.au  Southern Vales Bushfood Association (SA)  Contact person: Michael Brandwood  Address: PO Box 344  Clarendon SA 5157  Telephone: (08) 8383 6481