Asian Market Success
Grants for Asian Market Export

Round One Expressions of Interestsubmission guidelines

Round One Expressions of interest are now open for the Grants for Asian Market Export.

The Grants for Asian Market Export is a major component of the Asian Market Success Royalties for Regions (AMS) Project managedby the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA).

The Grants for Asian Market Export(“grants”) will invest up to $3 million, over two rounds of funding.

Thepurpose of the grants is to better equip Western Australian agriculture and food (“agrifood”)exporting businesses to develop and implement strategies to capture export market opportunities and attract investment.

Before submitting your application, please read the ‘Round OneInformation toolkit for applicants’ which provides additional details, including what to expect if your application is successful. The toolkit can be found at theAsian Market Success webpage.

Round OneExpressions of Interest close 5 PM (WST) Thursday, 21 April 2016.

Round Onepriorities

Up to $1.5 million will be invested in Round One.

Individual grants are available between $20 000 - $200 000 (excluding GST).

Essentialcriteria

The follow criteria describe the entities that are eligible to apply for a grant:

  1. Australian based legal entities with an Australian Business Number (ABN) and registered for GST that are capable of entering into a legally binding agreement with the Western Australia (WA) State Government.
  2. The main source of income (50 percent or more) for these entities must be related to the sale of food and beverage-related goods or services.
  3. At the time of applying, these entities:
  4. must be exporting or seeking to export goods that are produced, grown or manufactured in WA
  5. must have been in operation for over three years and already undertaking some export-related activities*
  6. should have established relationships with one or more in-market business partners*.

For the purposes of the grant application process, these entities will be referred to as WA agrifood businesses.

  1. The products or service that the entities are exporting or seeking to export must be positioned for premium* markets in Asia which is broadly defined to include the Middle East.
  2. Entities that meet criteria #1 (above) and whose main source of income is to provide a service that directly supports the export of goods that are produced, grown or manufactured in WA are also eligible to submit an application.

*Notes and explanations:

  • Besides ongoing export of goods to overseas markets that contribute to the entity’s annual turnover, export-related activities undertaken prior to application submission can include activities that demonstrate that the entity has made substantial efforts to expand existing business activity into overseas markets. This can include but is not limited to test product shipments, trade exhibition participation, export registration, existing business plans that factor in an overseas market strategy, and ongoing discussions with potential in-market business partners.
  • In-market partners refer to business relationships an entity has established with another entity specifically to access overseas markets for its products. These in-market partners can be based in Australia (with access into targeted market/s) or overseas and could be used by the entity to provide networks or contacts, supply channels, joint ventures and/or other complementary capabilities to assist the WA entity to compete within overseas markets.
  • Premiummarkets are those where the consumer recognises and is willing to pay for an additional margin in recognition of the distinctive attributes exhibited by the product. Such attributes are differentiated from commodity products.
  1. All successful applicants will be required to make a total co-contribution (cash and/or in-kind), of at least 25 percent of the value of any grant obtained from the Grants for Asian Market Success program.

Essentialcriteria

Grant applications will need to address how the proposed project will contribute to economic development and growth in regional WA.

Desirable criteria

Grant applications should address how the proposed project will contribute to the overall objectives of the Asian Market Success project, which are to:

  • provide WA agrifood businesses with confidence to invest in accessing and developing premium markets in Asia and
  • help transform the approach WA agrifood businesses apply to exporting so that they are internationally competitive and therefore able to capture high value, premium export markets.

Higher preference will be given to grant proposals that demonstrate strong alignment to one or more of the following:

  1. Opportunities identified in the Target Market Opportunities report commissioned by the Asian Market Success Project and released on 21 March 2016. This report is available at
  2. Activities that build:
  3. value or supply chains into high growth premium markets, leveraging high quality (i.e. beyond transactional) in-market relationships that the WA agrifood business has established to enhance its consumer focus and provide complementary capabilities and resources
  4. new business models or closely aligned value chains that increase the international competiveness of a WA agrifood business and enable it to become more attractive to financial investorsor
  5. business improvements in scale, product quality and capacity to meet demand expectations from overseas consumers of premium products.

Please note that other factors will be taken into consideration in the assessment of the applications at the discretion of the panel, including but not limited to:

  • whether the budget of the proposed project represents value for money
  • the percentage of cash in the total co-contribution from the applicant
  • the ability of the applicant to self-fund the project.

Application and selection processes

The grant application is a competitive merit-based process. Applicants are required to submit proposals which will be reviewed by an assessment panel.

A two-stage selection process will be used for Round One:

  • Stage 1 Expression of Interest – anexpert assessment panel will assess each application and recommend a shortlist of projects to progress to Stage 2.
  • Stage 2 Full Project Proposal – only shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed proposal for assessment by the panel.

Applications from eligible organisations must be submitted online using the SmartyGrantsapplication form.

All applicants will be notified by email that their application has been received.

To be considered for Round One funding, completed EOI applications must be submitted before 5 PM(WST) on Thursday, 21April 2016.

Successful projects will be selected through a competitive merit-based process.

DAFWA will appoint an expertselection panel (3-5 members) to provide industry expertise in the assessment of applications and make recommendations to the Asian Market Success Project Steering Committee.

Projects may be funded wholly or partially, and may have conditions or recommendations attached whichneed to be addressed before funding is granted.

Decisions on funding are final. All applicants will be notified in writing of the outcome of their application, and provided with feedback if requested.

Further information

Contact the Asian Market Success project team, DAFWA
Email:

Telephone: +61 (0)8 9368 3277

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