Guy Barnett,Minister for Primary Industries and Water
Agriculture is a cornerstone of the Tasmanian economy and has a key role to play in our plan to rebuild a stronger Tasmania.
The Tasmanian Liberal Government has committed $230,000 over three years to help interested farmers, producers and agri-food businesses shift to organic production methods, achieve certification and develop their opportunities in organic markets.
Our agriculture industries have remained strong through the COVID-19 pandemic, and this program will assist more Tasmanian farmers and agri-businesses to use organic systems so they can continue to grow and capture more value into the future.
It will create awareness of organics as a business option and help establish support networks for businesses transitioning fully or partly to organics systems.
It will also support financial, branding and business literacy around organics and increase the knowledge, skills and capacity of service providers.
The program will run for the next three years and be administered by the Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association.
As part of this support to industry I am also pleased to announce the opening of the Advancing Organic Agribusiness Grants Program.
The program will provide benefits both to individual businesses as well as broader agricultural supply chains and help support the vision to grow the farm-gate value of agriculture to $10 billion by 2050.
Businesses are eligible to apply for up to $15,000 for activities that enhance knowledge of organics systems in farming, with collaborative supply chain projects highly encouraged.
In light of the new learning environment due to COVID-19 social distancing requirements, the TFGA is working closely with industry to deliver a suite of online learning resources to further support farmers and businesses in their transitioning to growing, processing and marketing their certified organic products.
These are unprecedented times but we remain committed to our plan to grow the farm gate value of Tasmania’s agricultural sector to $10 billion by 2050.
