Seven food manufacturers awarded $33 million in Commonwealth grants

A grant round totalling $33 million of assistance to seven food manufacturers has been announced.

The funding is the latest tranche of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative’s integration and translation streams, following announcements since February covering the Space, Resources Technology & Critical Minerals Processing, and Medical Products sectors.

Assistance worth between $1 million and $20 million was available in matched funding for manufacturers’ projects. It is aimed at helping companies scale-up manufacturing, adopt advanced manufacturing techniques, and produce high value products for export.

The grants were announced on Friday for:

• Sabrini Foods ($1.4 million) to produce extended shelf life and frozen paneer, allowing them to export the cheese product;
• Bulla ($4.5 million) for a new plant for ice cream lines to be sold locally and exported;
• Plenty Foods ($9 million) to make protein nut flour; 
• Turbine Sunshine Coast ($8.7 million) for an R&D centre and large-scale contract beverage manufacturing facility;
• Mulgowie Fresh ($5.1 million) to expand processing of sweet corn and beans;
• Sullivans Cove Distillery ($3.3 million) to assist in a new production and tourism facility; and
• Ennio ($1.3 million) for development of a patented technology for nettings and casings to be used by the meat and poultry industry.

The grants would, “help maximise the agricultural advantages we enjoy, but it will also help regional Australia and the supply chains that operate throughout it,” said federal industry minister Angus Taylor.

Four of six National Manufacturing Priority sectors have so far received grants through the translation and integration streams of the Modern Manufacturing Initiative, which was announced in October 2020 and budgeted at $1.3 billion over four years. Taylor is the third industry minister since the launch of the MMI. 

Picture: www.farmonline.com.au

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