Coles has awarded eight small and medium-sized businesses across Australia more than $3.5 million in grants through the latest round of the Coles Nurture Fund.

Recipients from Queensland, NSW, Victoria and Tasmania will use the funding to explore projects from native giant freshwater prawn aquaculture and Australian-grown kiwi berries to AI-powered zucchini grading and driverless tractor technology.

Since 2015, the Coles Nurture Fund has awarded more than $43 million 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 says the round 14 recipients reflect 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,” she says.

“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.”

The grant recipients include:

• Hope Vale Foundation (Far North Queensland). Awarded a $500,000 grant to scale up a native giant freshwater prawn project, create new jobs and help bring an Australian-grown native protein, long valued by the Hope Vale Aboriginal community, to more Australians.
• Tallogum Berries (Northern Rivers, NSW). Awarded a $495,000 grant to help turn kiwi berries from a little-known novelty fruit into a more reliable, commercially viable berry crop.
• Zest Element (Sunshine Coast, Queensland). Awarded a grant of $500,000 to build its first mobile dehydration hub, a solar-powered, heat-pumped system built into an upcycled semi-trailer, helping farmers turn excess and out-of-spec produce into 100% Australian-grown fruit powders.
• Mount Sylvia Fresh (Mount Sylvia, Queensland). Awarded a grant of $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 (Ayr, Queensland). Awarded a grant of $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.
• Wintergreen Farm (Somerton, NSW). Awarded a grant of $500,000 to build a 30 megalitre above-ground water storage system using interconnected water bladders, helping the family-owned broiler chicken farm create a closed and controlled water supply for its growing poultry operation.
• Cummaudo Farms (Mirboo North, Victoria). Awarded a grant of $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 (Liffey Valley, Tasmania). Awarded a grant of $90,000 to upgrade irrigation system, automate soil moisture monitoring and mowing, and support soil health across the first-generation certified organic berry farm.