Strengthening our world-class beef industry

Help for Australian cattle producers, exporters and their local communities

We work with you to safeguard and grow sustainable agriculture, fisheries and forestry for all Australians.

Australia’s high-quality beef industry is important to our economy. It contributes to the agriculture sector’s goal of becoming a $100 billion industry by 2030. It also supports thousands of jobs across regional and rural Australia.

We’re proud to support industry with strong biosecurity. We partner in research and development and give financial advice and support. We help farmers to prepare for drought and adopt climate-smart practices.

Discover our services and initiatives. See how they can help you.

Access to export markets and strong biosecurity

Australia exports around two-thirds of our agricultural products. Our aim is to continue to grow access to export markets.

We work with business and government to improve export controls and services. This helps trading partners to trust the quality and safety of our meat products. We develop new laws and policy. We support industry with technical resources and training.

We help the meat industry to innovate. We fund and work with Australia’s research and development corporations. These include Meat & Livestock Australia, Australian Meat Processor Corporation, and LiveCorp.

We work to make our national biosecurity system stronger. This protects our industries, people, animals, plants, and environment from pests and diseases.

See our website for more on:

Animal pests and diseases

Market access

Exporting meat and meat products

Drought, disaster and financial support

Farmers and rural communities face many risks to their business. These include droughts, natural disasters, pests and diseases, and other market disruptions.

We have programs and services to help prepare for, manage and recover from these events.

One service is the Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS) Southern Queensland.

RFCS offers free and confidential financial counselling. It helps primary producers with financial difficulties and supports them to plan for a better future.

Services include help to:

improve cash flow and budgeting
access alternate income support
negotiate with your bank or creditors
access low-interest loans to reduce payments
develop farm business plans

Learn more about the RFCS

See more on our drought, disaster and rural support

Help to get back on track

RFCS QLD - Rick and Sarah are cattle producers in Central Queensland. They faced the financial pressure from rising interest rates and production costs. They were worried about defaulting on their loan. So they sought support from John, their local Rural Financial Counsellor.

John sat down with Rick and Sarah and helped go through their books to look at their current financial situation. John reviewed their cash flows, looked at alternate income sources and negotiated with their bank.

Together they crafted a plan to manage the debt. With this plan in place, Rick and Sarah are now back on track with their loan repayments and have regained control over their finances.

RIC low-interest loans

RIC (Regional Investment Corporation) is an Australian Government farm business lender. It offers low-interest loans to help our agricultural economy to grow.

Our loans help farm businesses prepare for and recover from severe disruptions. These include drought, natural disasters and biosecurity risk.

We help first generation farmers to start a farm business. We help next generation farmers to keep family farms through succession planning.

Farm businesses can use RIC low-interest loans to refinance current business debt. They can use loans to improve cash flow and invest in capital infrastructure. Loans can also be used for risk-reducing activities like expanding water storage and diversifying production.

Key loans include:

AgriStarter Loan – help with new farm business and farm succession planning
Farm Investment Loan – prepare and recover from severe disruptions
Drought Loan – prepare for, manage through and recover from drought
AgBiz Drought Loan – manage through and recover from drought

Family on farm with irrigation in background

Since a

2018

launch

Over

3000

loans delivered

More than

$3.24b

directly to farmers

Benefits of a RIC low-interest loan

RIC customers Martin and Helen Kinsela are from the Central West of NSW. They use RIC’s low-interest variable rate to ease financial pressure on their cattle and cropping business during recovery from drought.

The Kinselas refinanced part of their commercial loan to get relief from high interest rates and the high cost of capital.

They bought new larger cattle yards and increased their cattle mob. They also diversified into hay making, hay sales, transport, and trading.

See more on low-interest loans

AusIndustry – Connecting you to government support

AusIndustry connects small and medium size business to government.

For over 25 years, they have continued to nurture partnerships and networks. They provide information and connections to help businesses get all levels of government support. They also share business experiences to inform government policy, programs and decisions.

Support and services include:

government information and support (business.gov.au and the 13 28 46 Contact Centre)
advice for small and medium businesses for a commercialisation and/or growth project (Industry Growth Program)
local connection and referral to government support (AusIndustry Business Outreach Network)

See more on AusIndustry support

Representative of AusIndustry speaking to group

Portrait photo of a recipient of AusIndustry support

Building a business with help from AusIndustry

Black Box Co founders Shannon Speight and Emma Black launched with a first-year goal of adding 40,000 head of cattle to their database.

With AusIndustry funding and support, they’ve since added over 3.7 million animals.

Using data from across the supply chain, the Black Box Co platform helps producers make the best decisions about their cattle.

The funding from AusIndustry has been integral. We’ve been put in touch with mentors in the Far North [of Queensland] and have had AusIndustry contacts come to our place which is really important being based regionally and remotely.
Shannon

See more on the Black Box Co story

Northern Australian financial development

The Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF) is an Australian Government development financier. They offer concessional loans to develop infrastructure projects in northern Australia and the Indian Ocean Territories.

Our team share a passion for and deep knowledge of the region. We see its big potential and opportunities. We also know its unique challenges and features. This helps guide investment decisions and support the sustainable growth of the region.

We work closely with project supporters over the entire project cycle. From assessment to decisions, delivery, and operations. All financing is bespoke and led by evidence.

We aim to drive public benefit and boost the economy, population, and Indigenous involvement in northern Australia. To be considered, your project must:

be of public benefit and located in northern Australia
develop or enhance infrastructure
have an Indigenous Engagement Strategy (except for the Indian Ocean Territories)
be able to repay or refinance NAIF’s debt.

See more on NAIF

Besix Watpac Project manager and indigenous employee showing plans to NAIF staff with JCU Engineering and Innovation Place construction site and crane in background

Funding a state-of-the-art abattoir

Up to

$24m

NAIF loan amount

Total of

$37m

project value

Forecast

$63.5m

in public benefit

Signature Onfarm is a state-of-the-art abattoir facility near Clermont, Queensland. It can process 50,000 head of cattle a year. This gives Bowen Basin graziers new opportunities for beef sales, slaughter, and marketing.

The project involved building an on‑farm specialist beef processing facility. It also has on-site accommodation for up to 70 employees.

NAIF’s loan helped set up this much-needed facility in the Isaac Shire region. The facility is essential for export-accredited beef slaughter, boning, commercial-scale dry ageing and specialised packaging.

NAIF is different from a commercial financier. NAIF accepts higher risk for investing in infrastructure in northern Australia. An approach that helped to build this greenfield project in a remote region.

Field with hand holding iphone in foreground and generic data displayed

Climate-smart advice

We help the agricultural sector prepare and respond to climate challenges.

The $302.1 million Climate-Smart Agriculture Program aims to make agriculture more sustainable, productive, and competitive. The program funds a range of projects and a network of Sustainable Agriculture Facilitators and Regional Soil Coordinators to support farmers, landholders, and community groups on the ground.

The Future Drought Fund helps farmers grow and prepare their businesses for dry times.

Each year the Fund invests $100 million in drought preparedness initiatives. This includes:

farm business resilience plans
climate tools
showcasing practices that can make a farm more drought resilient

See more on the Future Drought Fund

Programs and initiatives

Our current programs and initiatives include:

Case study

Discover the benefits of our programs from a real participant. Bianca Collins took part in the National Mentoring Program. She used what she learned through the program to build a successful stud.

See Bianca's success story

Register chemical products

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) regulates all agricultural and veterinary (agvet) chemical products in Australia. Our vision is to be a global leader in agvet chemicals regulation for the benefit of all Australians.

We:

Register agvet chemical products. This means they can legally be manufactured, imported, supplied, sold or used in Australia (unless exempt by the Agvet Code).
Evaluate if a product is safe and works well before it is registered. This helps to protect the health and safety of our people, animals, the environment and trade.
Regulate agvet products all the way to when they are sold in stores.
Make sure all products follow the Agvet Code and other laws we administer.

See more on the APVMA