LOCAL BUSINESS SUCCESS: Chocolate On Purpose™ announced as WINNER of the “Indigenous Business of the Year’ Category at the 2022 Australian Rural Business Awards
Chocolate On Purpose™ has been announced as the Winner of the “Indigenous Business of the Year” Category at the inaugural Australian Rural Business Awards on the 24th June, 2022.
The Australian Rural Business Awards are presented by Australia’s leading online marketplace for rural and regional small businesses Spend With Us to celebrate, highlight and recognize the absolute talent that exists out there in rural and regional Australia.
Highlighting, for the first time in an Australian Rural Business Awards, what small businesses in rural/regional Australia are achieving in business excellence, innovation and sustainability, new business, Australian made and e-commerce. The awards are designed to recognise the strength, resilience, and talent of small business owners in rural and regional areas who have, in the last few years alone, gone through droughts, bushfires, mouse plagues, floods, lack of tourism and a global pandemic.
Fiona Harrison, founder and CEO of Chocolate On Purpose™, Australia’s first Indigenous chocolate company, says she is excited to be named the Winner of the “Indigenous Business of the Year” category. “I was humbled when I heard I’d been nominated as a Finalist, as it meant despite the busy lives we all lead, my customers had taken the time to nominate me. When I was announced the Winner I was speechless! As a sole entrepreneur, it’s easy to feel alone while you fang around working to get everything done, so you don’t disappoint your customer, so you can keep everything afloat, however this nomination, and now this Win, has affirmed the mission of my business is appreciated and valued.”
Chocolate On Purpose™, combines premium, gourmet chocolate with Australian native botanicals to create our ‘Bush Food Chocolate’ range, and through the deliciousness of these flavours we share the traditional use of the botanicals to deepen respect for ancient First Nations’ wisdom and culture. We are disruptors in the artisan specialty chocolate market, delivering real industry impact by empowering Australia’s First Nations & World Cacao Farmers to greater participation in supply chains and contributing to Reconciliation in Australia through storytelling with our chocolate.
During recovery from complex PTSD, Fiona Harrison discovered essential oils and the power of botanical essences for healing. Just as her Ancestors did, she realised the traditional cultural importance of these botanicals, came to realise that flowers and leaves are our food and medicine and embarked on a mission to find a “new” way to share the healing properties of botanicals. Her business, Chocolate On Purpose™, was born from this mission.
Fiona Harrison is delighted to be named as a Winner and proud of the many milestones achieved over the past year, in particular Blayney Shire Council’s selection of her “Bush Food Chocolate” to be gifted to delegates attending the 2022 NSW Tourism Conference, in Orange. “It gave us the opportunity to showcase the chocolicious side of Orange & Surrounds!”, said Fiona Harrison.
It can be challenging to be a successful small business in rural and regional Australia, and community plays an enormous part in that success. Fiona Harrison believes that community has played an enormous part in their business success, contributing to the circular economy that supports the sustainability of our regional area.
