CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — Grains Australia has announced A$574,000 (US$380,346) in Agricultural Trade and Market Access Cooperation (ATMAC) program funding has been awarded from the federal government for new projects aimed at creating more opportunities for the production and export of Australian grains.

The funding will be used to execute four projects being coordinated by Grains Australia on behalf of the Australian grains industry to deliver value across the sector.

“This funding from ATMAC builds on a grant of over $900,000 awarded to Grains Australia in round one, and we look forward to continuing to work with the federal government to improve Australian grains market diversification frameworks and further investigate opportunities for grains in new and emerging markets,” said Dr. John Ackerman, general manager, Trade and Market Access, for Grains Australia.

Richard Simonaitis, chief executive officer of Grains Australia, said the ATMAC funding will join a $180,000 contribution from the Grains Research and Development Corp. (GRDC) to be used for market diversification as part of investment in new and growth areas under the corporation’s RD&E 2023-28 Plan for research, development and extension.

“The ATMAC and GRDC funding will be used on two projects – the first to develop market indices to identify future opportunities for Australian wheat and barley and a second that will identify immediate Southeast Asian aquaculture markets that best fit for Australian grain,” he said.

Grains Australia will coordinate these projects and two more funded by ATMAC with in-kind support from across the industry. Those projects are benchmarking Australian wheat quality and performance against competing origins and facilitating an Indonesia Round Table at the Australian Grains Industry Conference (AGIC) Asia in 2024.