Western Australian agtech businesses will get a taste of global trends in creating the foods and farms of tomorrow at an international agrifood technology event in Melbourne this week.
Five Western Australian investor-ready businesses, with interests ranging from grain production to hemp, will attend this week’s evokeAG conference with support from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.
The two-day event provides a platform for the food and agriculture sector to exchange information and share best practices on how technology can and will shape the future.
Department Trade and Investment Executive Director Liam O’Connell said the use of technology in modern day farming was growing every day, enabling WA farmers to be amongst the most efficient and productive producers in the world.
“The State’s proximity to growing demand from Asia and the quality of our natural resources offer a competitive advantage for our agriculture and food trade, particularly our higher quality value add products,” Mr O’Connell said.
“This delegation will gain invaluable exposure for their projects with experts and delegates from around the world discussing valuable investment and partnership opportunities with WA.”
SWAN Systems, MIRRECOTM, Laconik, Mapizy and ManukaLife received a package of up to $1500 to support attendance at evokeAG, following a statewide expression of interest process.
“The department is committed to supporting investment and finding partnership opportunities for our Western Australian agribusiness, fisheries and food industries; and to supporting our emerging ag and food tech businesses to scale, commercialise, and attract capital,” Mr O’Connell said.
The evokeAG event, hosted by AgriFutures Australia, has attracted more than 1000 attendees from across the globe.
A sixth business, Livestock Pricing, has also been supported through the Most Investor Ready prize, awarded to a business participating in the Harvest Accelerator 2.0 program which is also supported by the department together with industry partners. The business has also been selected for Startup Alley, which provides a platform for startups to showcase their business.
Department Investment Lead Susan Hall said agtech was an exciting area of development.
“We are enthusiastic about providing an opportunity to get our successful delegates in front of an engaged industry and investor audience,” Ms Hall said.
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Jodie Thomson, media liaison (08) 9368 3937