Kakadu Organics is another First Nations business that has cracked the Southeast Asian market.
Murrumburr woman and founder of Kakadu Organics, Kylie-Lee Bradford, pictured, says that building relationships has also been important to her overseas expansion.
"I think it's crucial to build really tight relationships and do thorough research on the country you want to enter. It's not a quick process, especially in markets like Asia, which are heavily focused on relationship building," she says.
Bradford says soon her Queensland company, which specialises in eco-friendly wellness products and native foods will be in high demand overseas.
She began researching global markets and worked with Austrade and Trade Investment Queensland to understand the legalities and requirements needed to branch out.
"We went on our first mission to Singapore with Austrade and secured a deal with Ryan's Grocery, which involves distribution across six stores in Singapore," she says. "This marked our first exporting mission.
"We're also about to start exporting to the UK, we're close to finalising a deal there.
"You might not get an order right away. It took six or seven months of me building a relationship with the owner of Ryan's Grocery, becoming a trusted partnership, before they placed their first order."
Bradford says a significant challenge she faces is balancing the expectations that Western society places on First Nations businesses.
"Because of the complexity, you just need to have one foot in each world," she says.
Despite this, Bradford has never been one to back away from a challenge and urges other First Nations business owners to feel empowered to do the same.
"I'm driven by the challenge of proving people wrong. We've had many knock-backs, even six years ago, people said we wouldn't succeed. We've managed to push through, and now they're chasing us to get our products on their shelves. Stick to your values and mission, don't waver," she says.
Austrade Investment and Trade Commissioner Melanie Harris says any First Nations businesses looking at breaking into international markets needed to do some research before taking the leap of faith.
"Everyone's export journey is different, some will be export straight away and others will focus on the domestic market first," she says.
"Do your research, attend trade shows and missions, talk to others who have exported and, of course, talk to Austrade, and/or your state and territory government trade promotion agency. A great place to start is the Go Global Toolkit (export.business.gov.au).
"The toolkit is designed to help Australian businesses at every stage of their export journey including export guides for Australian businesses; laws and regulations in your target markets; tools to help you find export markets and check your readiness to export."
