Tasmania is famous for its premium fruit and vegetable produce. The cool climate growing conditions provide for slow maturation and flavour development. Tasmania as an island state with stringent biosecurity measures and is relatively free from pests and disease. Tasmania has a state-wide moratorium on genetically modified crops.
The island is home to many leading food and beverage companies. Tasmania’s strengths include access to quality raw materials, access to a pool of skilled and knowledgeable workforce, a solid research and development (R&D) base, competitively priced real estate, cheaper electricity costs and large plots of available and competitively priced industrial land.
Tasmania continues to build and invest in research institutions offering entrepreneurial pathways to commercialise products. There are exceptional counter-seasonal opportunities to develop, test, and market new concepts.
Enterprize Tasmania is an innovation hub for Tasmanian entrepreneurs transforming ideas into successful, scalable businesses. Supporting a variety of sectors, a particular focus is channelled towards technology-enabled start-ups, including agritech.
Test bed facilities are available through key partnerships with research institutions such as the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA), the University of Tasmania (UTAS), and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE).
Support for sustainable agriculture development, research and education have never been stronger. In particular, the TIA’s 6 research centres cover capabilities over the entire agriculture and food value chain from production to consumption. High-quality education and training mean investors and entrepreneurs have access to specialised research, world-class equipment and a dynamic team of internationally renowned experts.
Incentives, grants and support
Low-interest loans of up to A$3 million are available to Tasmanian farming and agrifood businesses through the AgriGrowth Loan Scheme.
The Accelerating Trade Grant Program helps businesses to expand their presence and products to a global market.
You’ll also find a variety of resources and marketing support to expand your agrifood business into Tasmania through Trade Tasmania.
Bring your business to Tasmania and you may also qualify for:
- a range of other Tasmanian Government grants and funding programs.
- Migration Tasmania’s Business Migration Program, attracting and leveraging investments from high-calibre foreign investors.
- The Office of the Coordinator-General’s support to major investors and businesses moving to Tasmania.
Ongoing vocational education and training is a priority in Tasmania, with organisations offering fit-for-purpose training opportunities to generate a pool of highly skilled employees. These include:
- Skills Tasmania’s Vocational Education and Training system
- TasTAFE (Australian Technical and Further Education)
- The JobTrainer Fund supports no-cost training (full qualifications and skillsets) for job seekers
Case studies
- Founded in Tasmania, The Yield is the brainchild of entrepreneur and Internet of Things executive, Ros Harvey. A collective of leading engineers, scientists, agriculturalists and technologists, backed by global giants including Bosch, KPMG and Microsoft, collaborate on long term solutions for growers and the greater agtech industry. The Yield aims to achieve sustainable food production and future-proof the agriculture and food industries.
- In 2020, the Tasmanian Government supported Danish aquaculture feed producer BioMar Group to develop its A$67 million feed manufacturing facility that produces up to 110,000 tonnes per annum of commercial fish farming feed.