Existing or aspiring exporter? Are you accessing the financial support you may be eligible for?

Article 1 of 3 on the EMDG scheme.

I'm fortunate enough to visit dozens of companies each month, and I'm constantly surprised by just how many are either exporting or aspiring to export (i.e. attending overseas trade shows), without accessing the financial support that is available to help.

The Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) scheme is a key Australian Government financial assistance program that has been around for over 40 years. The scheme provides financial support for eligible Australian businesses to start or expand their export markets. It does so to encourage domestic businesses to increase their international marketing and promotion expenditure, thereby achieving more sustainable international sales and growing our country’s export capabilities.

Put simply: Spend money to promote and build your export revenues and get up to 50% of eligible expenses back! Let me explain further…

Up to $150,000 of grant funding is available per application – provided you can meet the eligibility criteria – to a maximum of eight annual grants. I'll look at whether your business is eligible in my next article. Grant funds can be used to claim up to 50% of eligible expenses (after the first $5,000 in eligible expenditure) in retrospect, with first-time applicants able to claim expenses incurred during the past two financial years. That’s right. If you’ve never claimed an Export Market Development Grant before, you can claim two years' worth of eligible expenses in your first application. As for the types of expenses you can claim...

Eligible expenses include:

Overseas representation - This includes all reasonable costs you pay to an overseas representative acting on your behalf to market/promote your product.

Marketing consultations - The cost of engaging an external consultant to undertake export market research or marketing activities for your product.

Marketing visits - i.e. the cost of air travel, or a daily trip allowance to cover ground transport and accommodation for marketing related visits.

Free samples - The cost for providing free samples of the product being promoted for export, to a maximum of $15,000.

Trade fairs, seminars, in-store promotions - External costs directly related to international trade fairs, forums, seminars, exhibitions or similar.

Promotional literature and advertising - i.e. brochures, videos, advertising and website development.

Overseas buyer expenses - The cost for bringing potential buyers who are non-Australian residents to Australia for export promotion purposes.

Registration and/or insurance of eligible intellectual property - The cost of granting, registering or extending rights under foreign laws in relation to eligible intellectual property (up to a maximum of $50,000 per application) and insurance to protect these rights.

If there’s a few items in the list above that your business is spending money on – or planning to spend money on in the near future – stay tuned for my next post. I'll look at whether your business is eligible to apply for the EMDG scheme and what else you need to know.

Visit the EMDG page for more information (including links to the relevant T&Cs), or get in touch with myself at any time using the contact form or by calling +61 414 470 282.