Australian Native Foods

Plant Profiles

Key native food species

Riberry Which of the hundreds of plants utilised as food by Australian Aborigines have the greatest potential for modern food industry use and commercial cultivation?

This question has vexed participants in the commercial native food industry and has been the subject of considerable attention over the years.

In general, native plants with the greatest potential for food use and cultivation are likely to possess the following core characteristics:

They have a good and novel flavour
They are easy to harvest, handle, transport and store, or at least not present any major difficulties in these areas
They are easy to process
They have an existing, or likely potential, market demand
They are relatively easy to propagate
Their likely agronomy is reasonably well understood, and does not appear to pose any major obstacles to successful cultivation

Although new crops will be important for industry growth, there is something of a consensus over the dozen or so current 'best bet' crops, although the exact composition of the dozen may vary somewhat from person to person, with the variation often due to geographical perspective.

However, most lists are likely to include:

Crop information is also available on the Research and Development and Articles and Publications section of this website, in the form of downloadable bibliographies and links to research reports.

>> Search for more native plant information at Australia's Virtual Herbarium.
>> Fact Sheets on some of these crops are available for download from the horticulture section of the Primary Industries & Resources South Australia Web site.

This Australian Native Foods Web site is jointly supported by RIRDC and CSIRO.

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