NEWSROOM

The venture that aims to introduce the world to Aotearoa’s native berries 

27 September 2022

Native Harvest is a start-up created by University of Auckland students that is exploring the use of edible native plants as novel high-value foods.

The team are currently focused on wild-harvested totara berries, which have the potential to grow abundantly on Northland farms and have a unique flavour with potential health benefits.  Their goal is to make totara berries have the cultural capital and brand power of manuka honey.

Co-founders Supannika Chotirat, Luke Liddell and Danarta Sanyata met in 2021 at Summer Lab, a month-long entrepreneurship programme administered by the Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).

At the beginning of Summer Lab, students form groups around an idea, then spend a month developing it to pitch to a panel of judges for feedback and guidance. Team leader and Biology student, Liddell, originally signed up for Summer Lab with an idea for renewable energy but he soon realised he had the maths wrong, so he pivoted to edible native berries, something he had always been interested in.

He was lucky to find two other Summer Lab participants, Computer Science student, Sanyata and Medicinal Chemistry student Chotirat who were interested in his idea and wanted to join in.

“Summer Lab was amazing. We never knew that a start-up could grow so much in just four weeks! The highlight was the final pitch where the judges were able to taste the totara berries we had collected”, says Liddell.

When Summer Lab finished, the group decided to continue working together to turn their idea into a reality.

In 2021, they were one of the winners of Velocity’s Innovation Challenge and were qualifiers of the $100k Challenge.

They also joined CIE’s Start-up Studio, a programme that gives student start-ups co-working space in the Unleash Space and access to a range of mentors, lockers, and other benefits.

“Start-up Studio has been great, having a locker and free space where we can meet is really helpful. Our fortnightly meetings with mentors such as Mahesh have been great too. He has prompted us to think deeply about what our goals and ambitions are with Native Harvest”, says Liddell.

There is no average week for the Native Harvest team. Sometimes they are out foraging, sometimes they are in the lab measuring the bioactive properties of the berries, and other times they are visiting fancy restaurants.

In terms of market entry, to start with they are targeting chefs by pitching totara berries as a novel high-value food unique to Aotearoa New Zealand. The team have been working with chef Volker Marecek to experiment with how the berries can be used in cooking and have discovered promising results. Marecek says, “As a chef I am always looking for local authentic ingredients, and the totara berries fit that description perfectly. I am excited about this unique native ingredient.”

A highlight for the team this year was contributing some of their berries to artist Mamakan, who makes food-based art installations, for an event at AUT.

Native Harvest are currently preparing for their next big harvest early next year. Their goals for 2023 are to scale up their harvesting, improve the storage, transport, and processing of the berries, obtain a forager’s license, and conduct tests to ensure their berries can be safely sold.