Waste Bananas Turned into Cosmetics and Flour by Aussie Farmer

A far north Queensland farmer, who turns waste bananas into flour, skincare and cosmetics, has struck an international deal that will see his business expand globally.

Rob Watkins got into the banana industry more than 15 years ago, growing ladyfinger bananas, and soon realised the large amount of product not suitable for supermarkets.

"If you are doing a high quality job, you might throw out 12 to 15 per cent of your crop because they are out of shape, marks on the skin, damaged on the skin but inside they are still perfect," he said.

"Sometimes in the year you might chuck out 40 per cent because the market is over-supplied. They get chopped up and dumped."

The multi-million dollar company developed a manufacturing system that processes the "waste" bananas and creates resistance starch multifibre and gluten free baking flour from the fruit and cosmetics, skincare and ointment from the banana peel.

On Wednesday, Watkins announced the company would be expanding internationally with a "mega factory".

"The new mega factory, to be built on our existing Walkamin site and sent overseas where it will be constructed will allow even more jobs to be created in coming years," he said.

"This factory just redefines everything, it gives Australia a chance to manufacture again, I am very passionate about that.

"We have to focus on what drives Australia ... food is medicine and food is health, if we don't look after food what else are we going to have.

"We (Australia) are 1 per cent of the world's bananas, bananas are the fourth largest crop grown on earth ... all these problems we have, the rest of the world has.

"We have an incredible, incomprehensible amount of waste on this planet and we can make our powder food source, we can give products three year's shelf life and that is a big call."