A far north Queensland farmer, who turns waste bananas into flour, skincare and cosmetics, has struck an international deal that will see his business expand globally.
Rob Watkins got into the banana industry more than 15 years ago, growing ladyfinger bananas, and soon realised the large amount of product not suitable for supermarkets. He says that even if you're doing a good job, you can lose up to 15% of production.
Watkins founded Natural Evolution Foods to create an alternative market for the green bananas that were dumped. The company developed a manufacturing system that processes the "waste" bananas and creates resistance starch multifibre and gluten free baking flour from the fruit and cosmetics, skincare and ointment from the banana peel.
Now, Watkins plans to expand and has announced the company would be expanding internationally with a "mega factory". Watkins said a recent A$250,000 (NZ$261,000) funding injection into his company from the Advance Queensland Ignite Ideas Fund helped him explore overseas interests
"The new mega factory, to be built on our existing Walkamin site and sent overseas where it will be constructed will allow even more jobs to be created in coming years," he said.
