Recipients include Mount Sylvia Fresh, Pirrone Brothers, Cummaudo Farms and EcoHarvest
More than A$3.5mn in grants has been awarded to small and medium-sized businesses across Australia through the latest round of the Coles Nurture Fund, helping bring a new wave of innovative food and farming initiatives to life.
Recipients from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania will use the funding to explore projects from native giant freshwater prawn aquaculture and Australian-grown kiwiberries to AI-powered zucchini grading and driverless tractor technology.
Since 2015, the Coles Nurture Fund has awarded more than A$43mn to 127 Australian businesses in financial support to back ideas that support sustainability, efficiency and growth.
Coles Group chief commercial and sustainability officer Anna Croft said the round 14 recipients reflected the ingenuity, ambition and practical problem-solving of local producers.
“These projects show the breadth of innovation happening across Australia, from AI zucchini grading technology and Indigenous-led aquaculture to turning imperfect ginger and turmeric into Australian-grown pantry products and taking mobile dehydration technology directly to farms,” said Croft.
“Each recipient is tackling a real challenge in their business or industry, whether that’s reducing waste, improving efficiency, creating new opportunities for regional communities or developing more sustainable ways to produce food.”
Second-generation Northern Rivers business Tallogum Berries was awarded a $495,000 Coles Nurture Fund grant to help turn kiwiberries from a little-known fruit into a more reliable, commercially viable berry crop.
The funding will support a commercial plot for a next-generation kiwiberry genetic programme, allowing the business to test selected varieties at scale and work towards extending the fruit’s short supply window.
Tallogum Berries business owner Natalie Bell said the grant would help the family business build the foundations for a more reliable kiwiberry supply and give more Australians the chance to try a berry many may not have seen before.
“Kiwiberries are like a small, snackable version of kiwifruit, with smooth edible skin, so they’re the kind of lunchbox fruit you don’t have to cut,” she said. “When I first came into blueberries, only one in three people had tried one and now they’re on supermarket shelves almost year-round. We see a similar opportunity with kiwiberries, but to get there we need to test the right genetics and build a longer, more reliable supply window.
“My own kids absolutely devour them before they even make it into the school lunchbox, so we know the product has real family appeal. With Coles’ support, we can take the next step towards making kiwiberries a fruit more Australians can try and buy more regularly.”
Mount Sylvia Fresh in Queensland was awarded a grant of A$500,000 to build an on-farm food manufacturing facility for ginger paste and turmeric powder, helping the three-generation family farm turn imperfect and excess produce into convenient, Australian-grown products.
Pirrone Brothers in Queensland was awarded a grant of A$500,000 to install a Cellox Z-UHD AI zucchini grading system, helping the third-generation fresh produce grower grade zucchinis more accurately, reduce waste and make better use of the crop they grow.
Cummaudo Farms in Victoria was awarded a grant of A$500,000 to purchase a driverless tractor, helping the third-generation family-owned potato and onion farm improve efficiency, reduce fatigue and test how automation could support Australian growers.
EcoHarvest in Tasmania was awarded a $90,000 grant to upgrade its irrigation system, automate soil moisture monitoring and mowing, and support soil health across the first-generation certified organic berry farm.
