Ideas Boom - Natural evolution foods
When life gives you green bananas, make flour! Each week in North Queensland, hundreds of tons of bananas are discarded. With assistance from the Australian Government, Natural Evolution Foods were able to turn green bananas into a new business. The Australian Government is encouraging collaboration between business and research, helping small and medium businesses transform and grow through innovation.
Tip: Highlight text to annotate itX
Krista and Rob Watkins are farmers from Far North Queensland.
Their family owns one of Australia’s largest Lady Finger banana plantations.
The banana business is a serious one — bananas that are too big, too straight or too bendy,
are thrown away, and never reach the marketplace.
Each week in North Queensland, hundreds of tons of bananas are discarded.
But where others saw waste, the Watkins’ saw opportunity!
Flour, made from excess green bananas.
They started by making six kilos of banana flour a week and selling it at their local
café.
As demand for their gluten-free product grew — the Watkins’ knew they were onto a winner.
In 2015, with some assistance from the Australian Government, they took a risk and built a banana
flour manufacturing plant.
Now, their business, Natural Evolution Foods, is producing up to 5 tons of flour a week!
They have created a new market for banana growers.
Sales and jobs are growing at home, and sales are expanding to Europe and Japan.
That’s bananas!
And, Krista and Rob are continuing to have a go and innovate by investing in research,
to create new green banana-based products.
BOOM!
The Australian Government is introducing initiatives to connect small and medium businesses with
researchers, by expanding the Innovation Connections Programme. This will help more businesses
like Krista and Rob’s access the knowledge and expertise they need to develop their
ideas. Find out more at innovation.gov.au
