$7 MILLION is available for Western Australian agrifood and beverage businesses as part of round two of the State government's Value Add Investment Grant.
Announced yesterday at Hellers Australia in Jandakot, the funds will be used to invest in local processing and manufacturing that will ultimately improve food security and build economic opportunity.
Hellers Australia was one of the round one recipients and since the grant have moved their operations from the east coast to Jandakot.
With the funds they bought new equipment, upgraded their operations and created 100 local jobs.
The second round of the Value Add Investment Grants is split into two streams, the Feasibility stream and the Capital Investment funding stream.
Both streams however have a focus on businesses whose proposal supports improving sustainability and contributes towards carbon emission reduction, along with strengthening WA's food supply chain.
"Our Value Add Investment Grants program is a powerful initiative to incentivise the diversification and strengthening of our food and beverage supply chains and to expand our State's food processing and manufacturing capacity," said Agriculture and Food Minister Alannah MacTiernan said.
"It's also helping WA food and beverage processors and manufacturers to pivot to the increasingly complex demands of today's highly dynamic operating environment to forge new ways of doing business and capture opportunities.
"The new round of funding builds on the first round of this strong program, which generated more than $132 million of private sector investment and an estimated 600 new jobs across agriculture industries - helping businesses realise their goals and build a robust future."
The Feasibility stream offers matching grants of between $30,000 and $100,000 to help plan and de-risk future capital investment projects.
The Capital Investment funding stream sees individual grants of between $250,000 and $750,000 available under the program's to assist recipients to expand, diversify or relocate value adding and processing operations to WA.
Round one of the grants saw 18 WA businesses receive a slice of $10.2m which was announced in February this year.
For more information and to apply for a Value Add Investment Grant - go to agric.wa.gov.au/VAIG
Applications for the Feasibility stream close at 5pm (AWST) on June 8, 2022, while Capital Investment applications close at 5pm (AWST) on June 22, 2022.
