Round One priorities - Department of Agriculture and Food

Asian Market Success
Grants for Asian Market Export
Round One Expressions of Interest submission
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 managed by 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.
The purpose 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 One Information toolkit for
applicants’ which provides additional details, including what to expect if your application
is successful. The toolkit can be found at the Asian Market Success webpage.
Round One Expressions of Interest close 5 PM (WST) Thursday, 21 April 2016.
Round One priorities
Up to $1.5 million will be invested in Round One.
Individual grants are available between $20 000 - $200 000 (excluding GST).
Essential criteria
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.
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3. At the time of applying, these entities:
a. must be exporting or seeking to export goods that are produced, grown or
manufactured in WA
b. must have been in operation for over three years and already undertaking
some export-related activities*
c. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
 Premium markets 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.
6. 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.
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Essential criteria
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:
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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 www.agric.wa.gov.au/TMOreport
2. Activities that build:
a. 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
b. 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 investors or
c. 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:
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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 – an expert assessment panel will assess each
application and recommend a shortlist of projects to progress to Stage 2.
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
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
SmartyGrants application 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, 21 April 2016.
Successful projects will be selected through a competitive merit-based process.
DAFWA will appoint an expert selection 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 which need 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: [email protected]
Telephone: +61 (0)8 9368 3277
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