ImpactConnect 1:1 will take place at the Impact Investment Summit. In a new format, it offers pre-arranged one-on-one meetings between investment managers and businesses, with sophisticated, wholesale and institutional investors, during the summit. In this series we’re introducing the funds and the companies presenting at the event, so stay tuned.
Company name:
Wide Open Agriculture (ASX: WOA)
What does your business do, and who are your customers?
Wide Open Agriculture is the leading regenerative food and farming company in Australia. Through our Dirty Clean Food brand, we make it easier than it’s ever been for conscious consumers to purchase delicious food that directly supports family farmers using environmentally positive, regenerative farming practices.
We go to market through three channels:
1) A fast-growing digital platform DirtyCleanFood.com.au, a virtual farmers market platform that provides immediate delivery six days per week to over 10,000 customers in Western Australia;
2) Our Wholesale Platform, which provides Dirty Clean Food consumer packaged goods to over 2,000 retail and food service outlets in five countries;
3) Buntine Protein® our regenerative plant-protein concentrate made from Australian Sweet Lupin.
What’s the core problem you’re trying to solve?
We are disrupting the global food and agriculture industry by reversing the effects of climate change and biodiversity loss through regenerative agriculture. We do this not only by providing a viable offtake channel for regenerative farmers, but also by making it easy and convenient for consumers to purchase regenerative products.
More than 25% of global emissions come from our food system. Of the largest emitting industries, food and agriculture is the only one which can also contribute to reducing climate change through “sinking carbon” – carbon sequestration. At Wide Open Agriculture, we apply the Commonland 4 Returns (financial, natural, social, and inspirational returns) framework for long-term land restoration through regenerative farming.
At what stage of commercialisation/growth is your company?
Wide Open Agriculture (ASX: WOA) is the only listed 4 Returns Company on the planet. In 2019 we launched our commercial food brand, Dirty Clean Food in order to build a new channel for consumers to support regenerative farming. We have successfully disrupted the food and agriculture market in Western Australia, and are in the process of expanding our reach globally.
Dirty Clean Food: Wide Open Agriculture has grown rapidly from zero to $12 million in annualised revenue since 2019, growing sequentially in every quarter since the launch of the Dirty Clean Food. This segment is focused on reaching scale and profitability as it expands into Asia.
Buntine Protein®: Buntine Protein® is a high performance protein concentrate made from Australian Sweet Lupin. We acquired globally exclusive, proprietary IP for our novel plant-based protein, Buntine Protein®, from Curtin University in May 2020. Since that time, we have advanced this project from early lab-stage through food-grade research and development and commercial market entry. We completed construction of an R&D and small-scale-production facility in Perth in June 2022, and are currently in the process of moving towards large commercial scale.
What’s in store for your business in 2023?
We are focused on achieving scale and margin improvement at Dirty Clean Food, while investing in the commercial scale-up of Buntine Protein®. In the Dirty Clean Food segment, a key milestone expected is domestic production for our full range of Oat Milk product lines. Dirty Clean Food Oat Milk is the world’s only carbon neutral and regenerative oat milk. The Company has secured funding for this project by way of project-based debt financing from NAB.
In the Buntine Protein® segment, the Company is finalising plans for large-scale commercial manufacturing, including pre-orders so that the production facility can commence with volume. We expect these plans and initial orders to be complete this fiscal year (June 30, 2023). Buntine Protein® has transformational potential for the Company and our mission. Over 70% of the world’s lupin is grown in Australia, with a majority grown in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt. Lupin has uniquely attractive protein and health attributes, and naturally stores nitrogen in the soil – reducing the need for input use in farming systems.
Throughout 2023, we continue to rapidly deploy outcome based measures including soil organic carbon, natural capital accounting (including biodiversity assessments) and will launch our first aggregated reforestation and carbon project on multiple farms.
How can people invest? Listed/unlisted?
We are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX: WOA) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (2WO).https://www.wideopenagriculture.com.au/