Innovative Tasmanian business Sea Forest Pty Ltd has been named as a successful recipient of Morrison Coalition Government’s $30 million Commercialisation Fund.

Liberal Senator for Tasmania, Claire Chandler, announced that Triabunna-based Sea Forest had received a grant of $675,000 to help make their methane-reducing livestock feed a commercial success.

“This is a great example of the Australian Government working with an innovative local business to help them turn a breakthrough idea into a commercial success which will employ Tasmanians for years to come,” Senator Chandler said.

Sea Forest cultivates asparagopsis, a common seaweed in Tasmania, which when introduced in low quantities into livestock feed greatly reduces the amount of methane livestock animals produce.

“Sea Forest is a fantastic local success story and their livestock feed has huge potential to help the agricultural sector worldwide reduce emissions. Helping them to scale up and make their idea a commercial reality is exactly what the Commercialisation Fund is all about,” Senator Chandler said.

Sea Forest CEO Sam Elsom said the grant would help the company optimise how they process the asparagopsis.

“The grant will enable Sea Forest to improve and streamline the way we the post harvest processing our seaweed into a livestock feed supplement, which will enhance the quality of the product,” Mr Elsom said.

“This investment will have long-term economic benefits for the local Triabunna community where Sea Forest operates, and have a broader positive environmental impact by significantly reducing emissions in the livestock industry.”

Sea Forest is one of 10 projects across Australia to share in more than $5.7 million from the latest grants round under the Government’s $30 million Commercialisation Fund.

Grants from the Morrison Government’s Commercialisation Fund support businesses to undertake activities such as research and development, investing in technologies that will assist them to scale up their operations, and securing further investment to expand both nationally and internationally. 

The Commercialisation Fund supports projects within the Government’s six National Manufacturing Priority areas, which are: Medical Products; Food and Beverage; Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Processing; Recycling and Clean Energy; Defence and; Space.

For more information on the Commercialisation Fund and other successful projects go to https://www.amgc.org.au/projects/