WA researchers are on a mission to grow export and agriculture opportunities, improve health outcomes and ease global hidden hunger through diversifying and revitalising underutilised functional foods.

One project is targeting the nation’s largest fresh fruit commodity: table grapes are worth $620 million in exports, but Australia imports $80 million of the produce to cover the seasonal production gap.

Associate Professor Michael Considine, from The UWA Institute of Agriculture (IOA) and WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, is looking north to shrink that gap — and introduce more diversity to the region’s farming systems.

But establishing grape crops in the Kimberley isn’t simple.

“Most of our fruit production is in the south-eastern quarter of Australia — you can’t just shift table grapes into a different climate and expect them to behave the same way,” Professor Considine said.

“To me that’s a fascinating challenge. I love the idea of extending that production window by understanding the relationship between plants and their environment and using new practices that might trick them to think they’re in a different climate.”

It’s just one of many crops ripe for growth. In 2001 Australia exported more than 35,000 tonnes of apples, but exports dropped below 5,000 tonnes by 2021.

“Now our domestic market almost doesn’t register on the global scale of exports. New Zealand in fact exports a lot more apples than we do,” Professor Considine said.

“We should look to learn from New Zealand in the innovation and the nutrition focus that they’ve had because they’ve worked hard to create economic opportunities and negotiate trade agreements.”

"I love the idea of extending that production window by understanding the relationship between plants and their environment."

Associate Professor Michael Considine

 

While packaged snack foods have stolen market share from fresh fruits, Professor Trevor Mori from the UWA Medical School and IOA says developing an appetite for functional foods again will improve the health of more than just the economy.

“We’re trying to enhance current foods with enriched nutrients that we know modify cardiovascular risk factors, which has the flow-on effect of reducing cardiovascular disease,” Professor Mori said.

“The current focus is moving away from looking at specific nutrients in isolation to whole foods, especially plant-derived foods.”

But society’s fast-food addiction is a hard habit to break.

“We’ve been pushed in the other direction of the so-called ultra-processed foods, which are so far removed from their original form and devoid of nutrients you couldn’t even really call them a food.”

The poor dietary diversity is losing some of the gains made in heart health.

“Cardiovascular disease has actually come down since the 1960s — what we’re seeing at the moment is a slight rebound up,” said Professor Mori.

Professor Trevor Mori

“The burden on the health system is enormous — there’s one heart attack death per 12 minutes in Australia per day. More than 60 per cent of adults are overweight or obese. That’s frightening because of the direct link with diabetes. If we continue down this pathway, it’s only going to get worse.”

Director of The UWA Institute of Agriculture, Hackett Professor Kadambot Siddique, from IOA says neglected or underutilised plants/crops also hold the key to tackling malnutrition globally.

In the Asia Pacific region alone, it’s estimated more than 350 million people are undernourished — about half the global total.

The problem is rooted in food systems that rely on a few staple crops, especially rice, maize and wheat, while overlooking other nutrient-rich grain, legume and vegetable options in the region.

“We are talking about close to a billion people suffering malnutrition and hidden hunger globally because of the lack of a dietary intake of those things,” Professor Siddique said.

Hackett Professor Kadambot Siddique

“We have to diversify. It’s a matter of convincing governments there’s lasting value in those commodities — and the proof is there in crops like quinoa, which has achieved commercial importance globally.”

Once struggling farmers in Bolivia now earn substantial revenue from quinoa, while Peru saw its quinoa exports grow almost tenfold over a five-year period to become one of the world’s leading producers. Professor Siddique says it’s just one of many examples.

“Pulse production — which includes lentils, chickpeas, faba beans, peas and common beans — has increased in many countries,” he said.

“Provided we can show solid evidence to policymakers to take on this diversification, the market will emerge”.

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