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Victorian startup Natural Branding Australia has secured a farm trial with a citrus grower in Mildura to laser-brand 10 per cent of its crop for the 2025 harvest, representing a breakthrough in its founder Dr Adam Chrimes' mission to replace plastic stickers on fruit and cut 500 tonnes of plastic from the food supply chain each year.
Plastic stickers play an important role in the fruit industry for traceability with PLU codes that identify a fruit's specific variety, as well as the benefits of branding and QR codes to provide more information in some cases.
But Chrimes insists that Natural Branding Australia's technology can create patterns that include branding, PLU numbers, barcodes, and QR codes.
"Its capabilities are so advanced that it could brand each individual fruit with a unique identifier, enabling precise tracking and tracing throughout the supply chain," says Chrimes.
"This level of detail is not possible with traditional PLU labels, which are limited to pre-printed fixed information."
The process involves precise laser markings applied directly to the outer skin of produce, ensuring that product quality, shelf life, and integrity remain uncompromised. Chrimes believes the solution enhances food traceability while eliminating unnecessary plastic waste.
"If we don’t actively reduce microplastic consumption, our environment, and our health, will suffer. This isn’t just a future problem; it’s a reality we must solve today," says Chrimes.
Since it was founded in 2023, Natural Branding Australia has undertaken tests to label 200-500 pieces of fruit at a time at packing sheds for avocados and citrus in Mildura, as well as apples in Tasmania, which are supplied to leading supermarkets.
In 2025, this will be expanded to on-farm testing with the company actively onboarding more citrus growers in Mildura, and is being supported by a $50,000 grant from LaunchVic and Agriculture Victoria.
Chrimes says one of Natural Branding Australia's long-term visions is to revolutionise the fruit supply chain by leveraging unique identifiers.
"This innovation would provide consumers with greater transparency about the origins of their fruit, including information about growing conditions, harvest dates, and more," he says.
"In the short term, however, our primary focus is on enhancing brand awareness for fruits. Currently, only well-funded packers can afford to build brand recognition and sell their products at a premium.
"But in the long term, we aim to empower more Australian growers and packers to establish recognisable brands by using our technology. Our goal is to develop stronger connections between growers and consumers and increase the information about Australian brands in households nationwide."
Laser labelling technology has been around for many years but has not seen widespread adoption in Australia.
Last year Costa Group trialled Result Group’s Eco Mark laser technology in conjunction with Navi Co Global, while Spain-based Laser Food, founded in 2006, pioneered laser labelling in Europe.
Dutch organic fruit and veg marketer Eosta became a major early adopter of Laser Food's technology, first with a trial at Swedish grocery chain ICA before expanding the presence of this labelling method to multiple European countries.
Chrimes says Natural Branding Australia's technology was developed in-house.
"We purchase elements of the system 'off-the-shelf' and build it into a system ourselves, which is tailored to fruit branding," he says.
"Our approach is the key differentiator for Natural Branding Australia over ‘off-the-shelf’ laser branding systems like EcoMark. Primarily, we run a fruit-first model where we identify the best laser type and parameters for a particular fruit. We have found several advantages to using different lasers with various fruits rather than a ‘one-for-all’ system provided by others.
"By adjusting the laser hardware, we can optimise the quality and speed of branding to make it more appealing."
He also claims Natural Branding Australia's business model is more appropriate for the Australian market.
"We quickly realised that high up-front costs and system ownership are not desired, and most packers would prefer a lease-to-run model," he says.
"This model works better, as we can continue to support machine users in optimising laser branding for their needs, and users don’t need to spend large sums of money up-front."
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