Government sets aside $33m for food and beverage manufacturers

The Australian Government announced on Friday, 12 November that it would be allocating $33 million to support food and beverage manufacturers as part of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative.

The grants are to be split up across seven companies and range from $1.4 million up to $9 million. The funding will be used to boost manufacturing capabilities, build new facilities and establish research and development capacities.

The Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI) is a multipronged program that is working to position Australia as a world-leading manufacturer of goods. $1.5 billion has been set aside for the project, which aims to help manufacturers from a range of sectors scale up, collaborate and commercialise their manufacturing capacities.

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) welcomed the news, saying that the grants will bring innovation, export opportunities and jobs for the food manufacturing industry.

The AFGC highlighted that food and beverage production is Australia’s largest manufacturing sector and is responsible for an annual turnover of $132 billion and over 270,000 employees.

“We congratulate the government on identifying food and beverage manufacturing as a priority industry, one of six in the Modern Manufacturing Strategy. It is also important to realise the critical role of grocery manufacturing — currently not covered by the MMI as an indispensable capability for a safe, secure and sovereign food, beverage and grocery manufacturing sector into the future and we would welcome the opportunity to work with governments into the future to ensure the growth of this sector,” said SFGC CEO Tanya Barden.

Food and beverages is the fourth stream to be allocated funding under the MMI, after Space, Medical Products and Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing. The remaining two streams, Recycling and Defence, will be announced soon.

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