Co-investment funds awarded for F&B manufacturing projects

The latest round of co-invested projects announced via the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre’s (AMGC) Commercialisation Fund will see Australia’s manufacturing industry contribute over $32.4 million in funding alongside the federal government’s $9.03 million to drive commercialisation of Australian-made products. As per previous rounds, the funding has been allocated to projects across the six National Manufacturing Priorities: recycling and clean energy; medical; food and beverages; resource technology and critical mineral processing; defence; and space.

Of the 24 latest projects to receive funding, two were from the F&B sector. TPS, a Queensland-based measuring instruments supplier, is looking to commercialise advanced digital sensors for the testing of water quality parameters in the F&B sector. Total project commitment is $1.31 million, with $444,875 from the Commercialisation Fund.

ICEE, a Victorian packaging company, is meanwhile seeking to commercialise ‘Bouncee’ — a reusable and collapsible insulated crate and coolant system for short-transit perishable logistics, such as click and collect, and home delivery. Total project commitment is again $1.31 million, with $444,875 from the Commercialisation Fund.

There are also several projects in recycling and clean energy that are relevant to the F&B sector, including:

• Plantabl (Vic) — Commercialisation and manufacture of Great Wrap’s biopolymer resin (cling wrap) derived from organic waste, to produce a compostable stretch wrap that can replace plastic cling, silage and pallet wraps.
• Sustinent (NSW) — Commercialisation of a scalable process using sugarcane waste to make value-add products such as mushroom grow bags.
• Venlo (Qld) — Manufacture of a 100% recycled, repairable pallet that is tracked/traced and serviced within a global network.
• TomKat Global (Qld) — Manufacture of a fully traceable and recyclable thermal container, the KoolPak, for the transportation of temperature-sensitive and perishable produce.
   

“This latest tranche of co-investment demonstrates the broad capability of Australian manufacturing and its ability to drive jobs growth across the entire spectrum of manufacturing roles,” said AMGC Managing Director Dr Jens Goennemann.

“The demand for targeted, well-managed and appropriately sized co-investment has seen the Commercialisation Fund near exhaustion after just 10 months. This demonstrates the appetite for co-capital investment and the manufacturing industry’s willingness to match or better federal investment to commercialise Australian ideas for domestic and international markets.”

Since its launch 10 months ago, $29 million of the $30 million Commercialisation Fund has been allocated to 55 projects. For more information or to apply to the fund, visit https://www.amgc.org.au/projects/.

Image caption: The ICEE reusable cold chain solution.