Our Community: Naturally Nurtured Australia
Above: Naturally Nurtured Produce at CS Fresh in Singapore
For our latest Our Community post, we’re catching up with Accela Communications client Naturally Nurtured Australia (NNA) and getting intel on their approach to organic and sustainable produce from CEO Mark Baker.
Let’s start at the beginning, can you tell us a bit about Naturally Nurtured Australia and what do you hope to achieve with the category?
With an increasing consciousness among consumers regarding the origins of their food, NNA has spotted an opportunity in the global market for a leading well-defined lifestyle food category that is tasty and safer for all consumers. Since launching in February 2022, NNA has emerged as a leading innovator in the latest category of great quality natural food, sustainable, nutritionally rich, safe and superior tasting compared to standard produce available.
NNA’s produce is grown by a collective of farmers from Western Australia that use regenerative farming and advanced food testing methodologies to ensure the finest fresh produce quality. The QR codes present in every single product sold track its journey from the farm to the hands of consumers as well as its nutritional values.
We want to build awareness among our consumers and form a better understanding of the produce they purchase. We believe that trust is of the utmost importance, and we want anyone to pick up a fruit or vegetable and understand its origins, vitamin and mineral levels and even how long since it was harvested. To achieve this goal, we have invested heavily into our protocols, which include a five-star accreditation program supported by a range of biosecurity systems, integrated traceability procedures and compliance with strict testing protocols.
How does NNA select farmers for your collective?
NNA credits its superior-tasting produce to the sustainable, regenerative farming methods that allow farmers to naturally nurture their soil. This results in the optimum nutritious produce cultivated in Western Australia's pristine landscape.
This makes regenerative farming a key criteria when selecting our partners, as we need to ensure that they integrate regenerative farming techniques and protocols to meet our high standards for quality. The farmers that we work with use technology to regenerate and reuse fertile soil, retaining the soil’s rich biodiversity and health while ensuring all produce grown is nutrient-rich and of high quality.
Farmers are chosen based upon a strict set of standards across four key areas of the food process chain: soil and farm management, packing and logistics. Each farm is reviewed regularly, and strict protocols must be adhered to before the product receives the NNA stamp of approval.
As a testament to NNA’s effort to the finest quality of produce, one of our farms, Three Ryans, was acknowledged globally as a prime adopter of climate change positive practices, achieving to be a part of the Climate Positive Leaders Program by Corteva Agriscience.
What makes NNA’s produce different from others?
NNA leverages the most advanced farming and food testing methods to ensure the finest and safest produce quality, flying their produce fresh directly from Western Australia farms. All of the produce is grown without the use of dangerous chemicals or heavy metals, and its vitamin and mineral levels are regularly checked to provide optimum nutrition, guaranteeing the best nature has to offer. With our produce, we focus on four key areas; safety, security, taste and nutrition density.
We are committed to providing consumers with safe and healthy produce. We will test the produce regularly throughout the growing season to ensure it is safe from dangerous chemicals and heavy metals. At harvest, we test the final product and record it on the website’s safety guarantee. When consumers purchase NNA’s products, they’ll be able to scan a barcode that provides the farm to plate traceability story which offers complete transparency of their purchase.
When it comes to produce security, we follow strict biosecurity standards in Western Australia, going above and beyond to support these standards by ensuring food safety practices, ISO 9100, and HACCP meet all current and new health and safety regulations. We are also proudly certified by SGS (the world's leading independent inspection, verification and testing company). This ensures that our products are safe for you and your family to eat!
Above all, our produce is delicious and nutritionally dense, with a 100% guarantee we know that our produce offers a superior source of essential nutrients. The Brix (the amount of solid matter in a liquid sample) on NNA products is tested to ensure the products meet strict standards for nutrition, taste quality, flavour, and sweetness. When regenerative farming practices are used on the land, the land improves alongside the nutritional richness of the foods. Initial tests indicate that the benefits are 50-60% higher when it comes to critical vitamins and minerals for your immune system function and the essential development years of your baby and children.
Any interesting projects or initiatives coming up in Singapore you would like to highlight?
September has been a busy month for us! We’re putting on an educational programme on regenerative farming at Raffles City Shopping Centre, where we’re showcasing some of our seasonal produce to shoppers. After that, we’ll be participating in the Food & Hospitality Show where we’ll be featured on the WA stand featuring our regen foods.
We are also partnering with SPARK Singapore for a month filled with initiatives to raise awareness and educate on the alternative of a nutrient-rich diet towards ADHD symptoms. This is part of a bigger study to showcase that produce like NNA’s that uses regenerative farming can actually support parents and kids with ADHD and reduce the need for medication.
What challenges or benefits have you seen from launching in Singapore and expanding regionally especially with it being a new category?
Singapore was selected as our first international country to export to because there is so much potential to create dialogue between consumers, farmers and exporters like ourselves. The consumers are highly discerning and know what is a good product - we truly believe that if you succeed in Singapore, there is potential to expand anywhere. Since launching in Singapore, we have expanded into Malaysia and we’ll soon launch in Hong Kong too.
We are launching a new category of food which uses a different farming method, there is a lot of awareness-building required. Singapore is in a unique position where hypermarkets are stocked with mass-farmed fruits and vegetables, it's rare that you can get up close and personal with a banana farmer and see how exactly they care for the soil and crop. A big part of our awareness building is educating consumers and media on the NNA difference which encompasses traceability, testing and regenerative farming. We are slowly starting to see consumers tell the difference between our produce and others and we cannot wait to see this pick up.
Where can we find NNA’s produce in Singapore?
Consumers can purchase our sustainable, nutritionally rich, safe, and superior tasting produce from select Cold Storage outlets in Great World City, Paragon, Takashimaya, Tanglin Market, Jelita and Compass One.
Tell us about your experience working with Accela Communications.
Since launching into the market, the Accela team has been helpful with providing insights and introducing our brand to key media and KOLs. They have also performed above and beyond by being our ear on the ground and helping us with events and collaborations that we are unable to attend in Singapore as we are based in Australia. They have been great partners and it’s been a pleasure to work with a team that is collaborative and open to our product.
