Helping SMEs commercialise food waste

The Fight Food Waste SME Solutions Centre is an initiative to help small agricultural businesses reduce food waste. The grant program, run by the Fight Food Waste CRC, offers funds of up to $50,000 to help small-to-medium agricultural businesses work with researchers to find solutions for Australia’s food waste problem.

Food waste costs Australia an estimated $20 billion each year, with many small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) struggling to tackle this issue without access to funding, skills and expertise to find the solution.

Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) is funding the Fight Food Waste SME Solutions Centre, an industry-led grant program. The program is being rolled out by the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (FFW CRC) in partnership with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF).

The $200,000 grant program offers matched funds of up to $50,000 to help SMEs find solutions to their agri-food waste challenges. The program allows SMEs to tell the Fight Food Waste CRC their agri-food waste challenges, with the Fight Food Waste SME Solutions Centre research community finding the best solutions for them.

The initiative is an opportunity for Australia’s SMEs to turn a waste stream into a new value chain, providing an additional income to their operations.

The Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre is looking for applications that have a high commercialisation potential, with SMEs demonstrating a keen understanding of the consumer or market demand for a new product.

Further information is available at www.fightfoodwaste.com.au.

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