Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses and innovators can apply for support to develop and commercialise native food products.

1. Objectives of the Indigenous Native Food Program

Native foods, the staple of Indigenous people's diets for more than 80,000 years, are gaining popularity in the commercial food sector, nationally and globally.

The Indigenous Native Food Program (INFP) program is a partnership between the Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport (DTIS) and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) to explore commercial opportunities for scalable Indigenous native foods businesses.

New opportunities will be created, allowing innovative businesses to be led and managed by Indigenous people.

The program is a pilot project that aims to:

• support growth in the native food industry in Queensland
• help diversify the Queensland economy
• engage and benefit regional Queensland
• create new jobs or career pathways for Indigenous people and communities.
• create marketable outcomes for Queensland Indigenous businesses.

It's designed to help successful applicants:

• progress the development of their innovative products.
• achieve a milestone that represents a significant progression in the development of the product.
• increase their capability to develop successful products and to either.

          -take the product to market

         -work with partners to secure follow-on support from other sources.

Also consider...

• Find out what support is available through the INFP.
• Find out how to apply for assistance through the INFP.
• Find out how to run and grow your business.
• Register for free business mentoring through the Mentoring for Growth program.
• Subscribe to our Business Queensland Connect newsletter and follow Business Queensland on social media to find out more about events and programs to support your business.

2. Support available through the Indigenous Native Food Program

The Indigenous Native Food Program (INFP) provides successful applicants with support to:

• explore commercial opportunities for existing and new products.
• create new products and/or market opportunities.
• validate product concepts.
• determine what is needed for commercial production, including:

       equipment

       processes

       resources

       formulations

       raw materials

       food safety

       labelling

• scale up concept products for commercial production for existing or new markets.

Your proposal will be explored through a multi-stage process. The process can stop at any stage if the product does not prove to be economically viable.

Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) food experts will assist in project delivery through inspiration, collaboration and support.

If your product progresses through all the stages, you should be able to enter your product into the market or attract follow-on support from other sources to get your product to market.

3. Applying for support through the Indigenous Native Food Program

The Indigenous Native Food Program (INFP) is a new pilot program.

If you think you meet the eligibility criteria listed below, you can register your interest by completing the INFP application form (PDF, 62KB) and emailing it to QldFood@daf.qld.gov.au.

Successful INFP applicants will progress to a full application process with funding bodies.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for the program, organisations must:

• be an Indigenous business*
• have an Australian Business Number (ABN)
• be registered for GST (at time of application)
• be head-quartered in Queensland
• have no more than 50 full-time equivalent staff
• have a product-development project which is supported by a business plan and is capable of being completed within 12 months.
• include native food with the intention to rapidly scale.

*For the purposes of this program, an Indigenous business is defined as a business that is at least 50% or more owned by an Aboriginal person and/or a Torres Strait Islander person. It may be a company, incorporated association or trust. A social enterprise or registered charity may also be an Indigenous business if it is operating a business. This definition is in accordance with the Queensland Indigenous Procurement Policy.

4. Promotional requirements and privacy for the Indigenous Native Food Program

If you receive support, you'll be expected to:

• actively promote your projects
• provide information and attend media/promotion events if requested.
• acknowledge the Queensland Government support in all relevant published material, media releases and public statements.

Privacy of applicants

The Queensland Government collects and collates information from the application form to assess applications for the program. Only authorised departmental officers and approved grant assessors have access to this information.

Applicants should note that broad details of successful proposals, agreed outcomes, progress and the level of support awarded may be published by the Queensland Government. Some information may be used to promote funded projects.

Your personal information will not be disclosed to any other third party without your consent, unless required by law or for the purposes of the Information Privacy Act 2009.

For audit purposes, the Queensland Government is required to retain the applications and other supplied supporting material.

The provisions of the Right to Information Act 2009 apply to documents in the possession of the Queensland Government.