Future Food initiative helps grow Brisbane businesses

Brisbane food and beverage businesses are being encouraged to participate in the Brisbane Future Food initiative which aims to help them grow in both regional and global markets.

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk stated the education and industry development programs are part of the city’s strategy to drive investment and job growth in the food and agribusiness sector.

“There is a hunger from Brisbane’s food community to expand their capabilities, capacity and expertise, and the Future Food Brisbane initiative will deliver a range of targeted education and industry development advice to help them achieve this.

“Growing Brisbane’s food and agribusiness industry is a priority of the Brisbane 2022 New World City Action Plan for economic growth, which is why we want to help our local food and beverage businesses to prosper,” Cr Quirk said.

Developed by the city’s economic development board Brisbane Marketing, the initiative includes eight-week programs such as the Global Readiness Accelerator run by KPMG. With a three-day workshop and mentoring, this program aims to build the capability of participants’ product/service/business model, in areas such as alternate proteins or sustainability, to help them grow and enter new markets.

Another eight-week program is the Future Food Product Development and Market Readiness Incubator. Run by corporate services company Bentleys, this targets businesses who are looking to build, scale and grow.

Other opportunities include the Startup Launchpad for businesses at the concept development or start-up stage, and industry development workshops and seminars covering e-commerce and retail and private readiness.

The initiative follows the ethos ‘Build Local to Grow Global’, providing participants with information, advice and mentoring from industry experts. Cr Quirk suggested Brisbane was the perfect location for the innovation hub.

“Brisbane has the facilities, infrastructure and networks to support local food and beverage businesses to tap into national and international markets,” Cr Quirk said.

“Collaboration with councils and industry across South East Queensland is also critical to this initiative and the overall success of our region.”

The programs were launched at the Future Food BootCAMP last week and will begin in April.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Gajus