Export Market Development Grant Opportunity
EMDG is a key Australian Government financial assistance program for Australian exporters. Each year, it helps Australian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) start or expand their export business.
The program is designed to bring benefits to Australia by encouraging the creation, development, expansion and diversification of foreign markets for Australian products. This is done by providing targeted financial assistance for promotional activities and the development of marketing skills to Australian SMEs and their representative organisations. The intended outcome is increased export promotion for eligible products in foreign markets by EMDG recipients.
The principles underpinning EMDG are:
Help is focused on export market development and promotion.
Grantees must spend at least an equal amount of their own money on eligible expenses (i.e., you must spend double the grant amount).
The EMDG grant is an eligibility-based grant. All applicants who are eligible will be offered a grant agreement.
SMEs have access to grants up to a total of 8 years, reflecting the time it takes to build a presence in the market.
A wide range of expenditure is eligible, reflecting how businesses approach markets in different ways.
Grants are paid in accordance with a grant agreement between Austrade and a grantee. Some EMDG conditions apply only to representative bodies, while others apply to all other applicants/grantees. For simplicity, the guidelines will refer throughout to applicants/grantees as SME exporters.
A link to online grant infromtion can be found by going to Grant Connect https://help.grants.gov.au/ - first time uses of this site will need to register to use the online grant portal - use of grant connect is free and can be set up to provide the users with real time updates on available or coming grants of interest to the user.
Responsible Agency:
Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade)
Grant Activity Timeframe:
Applications open - 9am, AEDT on Wednesday 15 March 2023
Applications close - 4pm AEST on Friday 14 April 2023
Location:
ACT, NSW, VIC, SA, WA, QLD, NT, TAS
Funding available
The total funding for this grant program is $157.9 million per year divided amongst eligible applicants across all rounds, including grant funding and funds for administration of the program.
Description:
Austrade’s Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) program helps businesses grow their exports in international markets. These grants encourage small to medium enterprises (SMEs) to market and promote their products globally.
Types of grants
SME exporters can apply for 3 different grant tiers over 8 years (not necessarily consecutively) for eligible promotional activities.
Each tier provides a different level of support as SMEs grow their export markets.
Tier 1 Ready to export: New exporters.
Tier 2 Expanding: Expanding export promotion activities.
Tier 3 Expanding and strategic shift: Expanding export promotion activities and making a strategic shift, e.g., targeting a new market in a new country.
Representative bodies:
Assistance for industry bodies and alliances extends to training members to become export ready. Representative bodies will continue to have access to financial assistance for promotional activities on behalf of their members in international markets.
Eligibility:
To be eligible, you need to be an Australian person and have eligible products and expenses as defined in the EMDG Rules. The EMDG Guidelines provide a simple description of the eligibility requirements.
Eligibility requirements include:
having a turnover of less than $20 million for the financial year before the financial year in which the application is made
being an Australian person within the meaning of the EMDG Rules
having an Australian Business Number.
EMDG funds must be used for promotional activities to market eligible products in foreign countries, or for training activities to develop marketing skills. To be eligible, your product must be of substantially Australian origin.
Austrade cannot accept late applications