As interest grows in our uniquely Australian and highly nutritious native ingredients, richly connected to Country and culture, there are so many ways you can ethically support the native food industry. I love promoting and supporting native food businesses owned, operated and driven by mob.

Representing less than 2 per cent of participants across the entire supply chain in the booming native food industry, we have a long way to go to secure fair representation in an industry based on First Nations cultural knowledge and custodial care. Realistically, accounting for just 3 per cent of the Australian population, our First Nations peoples don’t have the critical mass to dominate or drive large commercial markets. However, through aligning with and gaining support from our allies, we will be able to steer the native food market in a fairer and more ethical direction.

The beauty of the native food industry is that, done right, it holds incredible potential to put genuine reconciliation into practice for the benefit of all: Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians working together, side by side, in fair and equitable relationships, to ensure everyone benefits from its growth.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of mob-owned and mob ally businesses. By supporting these stockists and growing the demand for native ingredients, you can play a part in making them easily accessible to all Australians.

Mob-owned native food businesses

“These businesses sell a wide range of native ingredients and products – they’re all great first stops for stocking your native pantry.”

Bush to Bowl
Owned by Clarence Bruinsma (Yaegl) and Adam Byrne (Garigal/ Gadigal), Sydney‑based Bush to Bowl supplies a wide range of dried and fresh native spices, coastal succulents and warrigal greens, and a small selection of fresh and frozen native fruit, plus native plants to grow at home – all available online. As a social enterprise, it also aims to create spaces where families and community members can engage with Australia’s native plants and traditional Aboriginal knowledge and culture. 

Kaiyu Superfoods
A Northern Territory–based business that processes and supplies a wide range of dried and freeze-dried native ingredients and native tea blends, including lemon myrtle, native lime, wattleseed, river mint, quandong and muntries. 

Karkalla on Country
As well as offering a targeted range of online products to help people build their native pantry – including whole and ground native peppers, spices and spice blends, and native teas – Karkalla on Country offers an immersive cultural and culinary experience. Aligned with the Bundjalung cultural calendar and based in the Byron Shire, the experience includes a meal, grounding on Country, a walk through the property and knowledge-sharing on traditional foods and ingredients. 

Kungkas Can Cook
Ethically sourced organic bush food straight from the Central Desert, including a selection of dried native spices, spice blends and native teas – all available online. Based in Alice Springs, Kungkas Can Cook was co-created by Aunty Rayleen Brown, a pioneer and central figure in our native food industry who insists on using only wild-harvest bush tucker sourced directly from the women who gather the food, as a way to support livelihoods and the continuation of connection to story and Country. 

Maalinup – Outback Pantry
Visit the online store of this West Australian business, gallery and shop to buy a selection of native herbs and spices. 

Mabu Mabu
Created by deadly Torres Strait Islander chef and restaurateur Nornie Bero, Mabu Mabu operates a small online shop selling small-batch, handmade native sauces, spices, jams, hot chocolate, damper kits and tea; their products are also available at Big Esso in Melbourne. 

My Dilly Bag
Led by the legendary Aunty Dale Chapman, My Dilly Bag offers a selection of fresh and dried native ingredients and products, including pastas, syrups, sauces and jams, all for sale online or at their Sunshine Coast shop. 

Native Oz Bush Foods
With a strong commitment to ecological restoration and the preservation of native species, Queensland-based Native Oz Bush Foods produces a large selection of native salts, teas, spices and blends, sold through its online shop. 

Something Wild
A South Australian–based family business, Something Wild sells native fresh produce, spices and jams, as well as a selection of award-winning native-flavoured beverages, both online and through their stall at Adelaide Central Market. 

Warndu
The brainchild of Damien Coulthard and Rebecca Sullivan, South Australia–based Warndu produces and supplies a wide variety of food highlighting wild-harvested native ingredients. Their expansive online range is rigorously sourced and includes a selection of teas, infused oils, ground spices, spice blends, salts, sauces, cookbooks and more. 

These businesses are more specialised (offering either a smaller range of foods, products made from native ingredients or other services), but are great go-tos and well worth supporting.

Bakarindi Bush Food
Bakarindi Bush Foods brings together traditional and bush food recipes to create unique gourmet-style relishes, jams, sauces and chutneys. Proudly owned by Mudyala Aboriginal Corporation and volunteer-run, with all profits supporting local community programs. Available at local markets and online. 

Black Duck Foods
An Aboriginal social enterprise committed to traditional food-growing processes that care for Country and return economic benefits directly to community. At Yumburra, near Mallacoota in Victoria, Aboriginal people cultivate traditional Aboriginal grains, which are milled into flours (blends of kangaroo, spear, Mitchell and button grass), plus munyang tubers. Their products are available online. 

Indigiearth
Created by native food pioneer Aunty Sharon Windsor, this Mudgee-based family-run business produces a high-quality selection of native chutneys, dukkah, spices, chocolates, coffees and teas – all sold online, along with other food items. 

Indigigrow
When you can’t find it, grow it! At this time, not all native ingredients are easy to find, so I encourage you to start growing your own at home. The perfect place to source native plants online is Indigigrow, a First Nations social enterprise that specialises in the propagation and growing of Australian native edible plants in the critically endangered Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub (ESBS). 

Jala Jala Treats
A First Nations-owned business founded by Sharon Brindley, a proud Yamatji/Noongar woman, the Jala Jala Treats online shop sells a selection of native tea blends, spices and chocolates infused with native flavours. 

Mayi Harvests
Mayi Harvests is an Indigenous owned and -operated business focused on the sustainable harvesting of native foods in Broome. Created and led by respected elder Aunty Pat Torres, Mayi Harvests specialises in gabiny (Kakadu plum) and boab, in addition to a selection of native teas and spices, all available to order online. 

Native Foodways
Native Foodways is owned and run by Kubin woman Carla McGrath (from Moa Island in the Torres Strait), Pitta Pitta woman Cristilee Houghton, Wiradjuri man Jason Glanville, Wiradjuri man Lachlan McDaniel, and Australian–Hungarian man Mickey Kovari (born and raised on Gadigal Land). The team works alongside a range of collaborators to strengthen the native food system in a way that is regenerative, culturally respectful, and benefits First Peoples. They have a cafe, a catering service and an online store supplying lemon myrtle, native honey, flour and gulbarn (a kind of myrtle) tea. 

Newchurch Family Farm
A South Australia–based family farm specialising in growing native foods, including saltbush, sea parsley, warrigal greens, apple berries, river mint, gumbi gumbi, wattleseed and quandong. Order via Instagram.

Red Centre Enterprises
Based on the northern outskirts of Adelaide, this commercial farm grows and sells an extensive range of native greens and herbs, as well as offering catering, workshops and cultural engagement. 

Sobah
Shop a range of non-alcoholic craft beers flavoured with native ingredients. 

Three Little Birds
Founded by First Nations chef Chris Jordan, Three Little Birds is a catering and events company that embraces native ingredients and ancient knowledge of customs and techniques to make specialty food products, including jams, chutneys, spice blends and dukkah (sold through My Dilly Bag).  

Palawa Kipli
Palawa Kipli is a native food business operated by Aboriginal people in lutruwita (Tasmania). Focusing on ancestral ingredients and traditions, Palawa Kipli is committed to the reconnection of First Nations people to traditional foods and food practices. Although they don’t sell native ingredients, they are worth checking out for their catering, events and cultural experiences. 

Pundi Produce
At its aquaponic farm at Monash, in the Riverland region of South Australia, Pundi Produce supplies river mint, saltbush, lemon myrtle, bush tomato, wattleseed and warrigal greens – all organically grown in a sustainable way. You can buy their native teas and bitters online. 

Ally-owned native food businesses

“These businesses are great all-rounders.”

Australian Native Food Co
Supplies a wide range of dried native spices, spice blends and fruit powders, as well as a selection of specialty native food goods, all available online and in their Adelaide shop. 

Creative Native Foods
Based in South Australia, Creative Native Food sources and sells a variety of fresh, dried and frozen native foods online, alongside damper kits, cookbooks and teas. 

Moojepin Foods
In the Great Southern region of Western Australia, Moojepin Foods harvest a range of fresh, wild-grown coastal plants all year, including saltbush, samphire, karkalla, crystal ice plant and sea purslane. 

NATIF
NATIF is a social enterprise that sources ethical and sustainable Australian native foods. A selection of their freeze-dried native fruit powders, spices, teas and beverage products are available online. 

Oz Tukka
Based in New South Wales, Oz Tukka offers a wide range of native ingredients, as well as damper and muffin mixes and native-inspired beverages, all available online and at their showroom just south of Newcastle.  

Playing with Fire
Co-owned by Rebecca Barnes and Gus Donaghy, Playing with Fire supports sustainable farming methods and is an advocate for First Nations representation in the native food sector. Based in Ballina, in northern New South Wales, the business is built on sourcing and supplying a wide selection of native foods in fresh, dried and frozen forms, as well as manufacturing an array of specialty native food and beverage products that can be ordered online; they also offer bulk ordering for wholesalers.  

Plumtree Pocket
A regenerative farm, nursery and garden that specialises in local seasonal produce, including native raspberries, bunya nuts, Davidson plums and Burdekin plums. Their air-dried, freeze-dried and pureed plums, native tamarind and lemon aspen are sold online. 

Related news: Nornie Bero’s top 5 native ingredients and how to use them

Native and bush food specialists

“The following growers and suppliers focus on specific crops or food products.”

Byron Bush Food
Byron Bush Food is a certified organic ooray (Davidson plum) orchard, nestled in the Byron Hinterland and surrounded by lemon myrtle trees and a rainforest under regeneration. They work closely with the traditional owners to ethically grow and share nature’s native bounty. All the produce is carefully hand-harvested on the family farm of Carl and Jess Willuweit; their freeze-dried Davidson plum powder and flavoured salts are available online. 

Marvick Native Farms
One of only five commercial bush lime growers in Australia, this husband and wife team tend to around 4000 trees, which produce five different varieties of native citrus: finger limes, ruby limes, golden limes and two types of desert lime. In addition to their fruit, Mark and Vickie produce a range of freeze-dried native fruit powders, infused oils, relishes and sweet preserves, distributed through specialty stores, with stockists in Western Australia and Victoria.  

Myrtle Trading Co
Myrtle Trading Co grow, manage and produce premium-quality organic native botanicals on Bundjalung Country. Specialising in lemon myrtle leaf, lemon myrtle oil and floral water, which can be ordered by phone or email. 

Rainforest Bounty
A leader in regenerative agricultural systems based in the Atherton Tablelands of Tropical North Queensland, Rainforest Bounty produces and sells native sauces, condiments, vinegars and syrups. 

Native and bush food growers

“These growers primarily distribute to retailers, but are worth contacting if you’re trying to find a specific ingredient.”

Bushfood Farms
Bushfood Farms is an Australian-owned, environmentally focused wholesale network and supplier of native products. Collaborating closely with First Nations custodians, Bush Farms was founded by ecologists with a deep knowledge of our fragile ecosystems. With a primary objective of reducing wild-harvest impacts on the environment and native animal resources, they ethically and sustainably source, grow and supply a range of fresh, dried and freeze-dried native produce. 

Pocket Herbs
A family-run business nestled in the hills of Burringbar, in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, this farm supplies wholesale agents, providores and retailers across Australia. Pocket Herbs grows a selection of herbs, greens and coastal succulents, including karkalla, sea parsley, saltbush, crystal ice plant, samphire, sea purslane, warrigal greens, river mint and sea blite. Their products are widely stocked across northern New South Wales and in Brisbane, and at some supermarkets. 

Related news: 5 recipes from Mabu Mabu that celebrate native ingredients