Gubinge (Kakadu Plum) – a Remote and Wild Harvest
The world is continually looking for a new super food and right now, the world is enamoured over the Australian bush tucker gem - the Kakadu Plum, a small, sour fruit which is the latest of these natural ingredients to find itself in the beauty spotlight.
The Kakadu Plum (also called the Gubinge, Billygoat Plum or Murunga) is a small deciduous tree found growing wild right across the Top End of Australia, from East Arnhem Land to the Dampier Peninsula and Broome.
With the highest Vitamin C of any natural plant, the Kakadu Plum has the ability to restore skin elasticity, slow the aging process, reverse the effect of stress, alleviate age spots and erase fine lines.
Commercial production can be challenging
The native trees come to fruit usually at the start of the dry season in May each year. The fruit is mainly a wild harvest, which has been a challenge to meet the global demand. The remote growing location of the Kakadu Plum tree has previously hindered efforts to supply the fruit on a large scale and it can be an unreliable harvest as one tropical storm can destroy the crop, or a period of drought will impact supply capabilities.
The Australian Government Rural Industries R&D Corporation Industry Overview report states that the Commercial harvest of Kakadu Plum commenced in the late 1990s. The majority of production still stems from wild harvest, which requires government permits, along with a handful of small orchards.
It is estimated that currently twenty tonnes of Kakadu Plums are harvested across northern Australia each year, with plans to increase this wild harvest to more than 100 tonnes by planting new trees in existing gubinge growing areas to meet commercial demand. The growing interest in the Kakadu Plum as both a food supplement and in skin care products offers an exciting opportunity for Australia’s indigenous communities to create new industries.
Indigenous Australian Communities
For over a decade the Kimberley Training Institute has been promoting cultivation of the Kakadu Plum via practical training as a way to maximise the involvement of Indigenous Australian communities in a culturally appropriate commercial enterprise. A model of “enrichment planting” has also been trialed, where trees are planted within existing areas of bush and one Kakadu plum enterprise reported a significant increase in the quality and quantity of fruit grown on land managed according to traditional Indigenous practices.
WA's largest Aboriginal Community at Bidyadanga has been growing Gubinge trees for 10 years and has just completed its third commercial harvest as well as planting 200 new seedlings as part of a training program run by the North West Regional TAFE.
Kakadu Plum Benefits
The increasing demand for the Kakadu Plum is not only an economic opportunity in the development of Northern Australia, but it also has wonderful social benefits by:
- Engaging local people in indigenous communities
- Boosting employment, particularly for regional Australians
- Increasing incomes for those in productive regions
- Strengthening cultural ties and respect
- Improving the health of people, and
- Making a healthy, traditionally important fruit more accessible
The Kakadu Plum is currently in everything from masks to serums and this Australian super fruit will give you the most gorgeous skin which is why you need this ingredient in your beauty life, too. The benefits of Kakadu Plum can be found in all Kadee Botanicals products: Kadee Botanicals Eye Cream, Kadee Botanicals Hydrating Day & Night Cream and Kadee Botanicals Body Lotion
For more information on the skincare benefits of Kakadu Plum - See our recent blog article: 8 Reasons to Love Kakadu Plum