SUBMISSION
Tasmania’s Small Business Strategy 2036 September 2026
About Eat Well Tasmania Eat Well Tasmania welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the consultation draft of Tasmania’s Small Business Strategy 2036. For over 30 years, Eat Well Tasmania has worked across Tasmania’s food system, connecting people, communities, organisations, businesses, producers and government around food. Our vision is:
Tasmanians are connected and eating well. As a statewide not-for-profit organisation, Eat Well Tasmania occupies a unique position within Tasmania’s food system. While we are not a traditional business or industry association, our work brings us into regular contact with producers, growers, makers, processors, retailers, hospitality businesses, community organisations and other enterprises that contribute to Tasmania’s food economy. Through this work, we see both the opportunities and challenges experienced by Tasmania’s small food businesses. Small businesses do not operate in isolation. Their sustainability is influenced by the systems around them; connections, supply chains, pathways to market, procurement opportunities, workforce, transport, processing capacity, visibility, operating costs, community demand and government policy. We therefore welcome the Strategy’s recognition that small businesses are at the heart of Tasmania’s economy and communities, and its focus on resilience, innovation, collaboration and adaptation.
CONTACT Kate Crawford State Manager Eat Well Tasmania Inc. E: kate@eatwelltas.org.au P: 0437 417 666 W: www.eatwelltas.org.au
PHOTO CREDITS: Samuel Shelley Moon Cheese Studio Tasmanian Partner Toolkit Studio Hubert Lu & Lo
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Tasmania’s food system is a small business ecosystem Tasmania is a small business state, with more than 42,000 small businesses representing approximately 97 per cent of all Tasmanian businesses. The draft Strategy recognises the important contribution of family farms, retailers, tourism operators, manufacturers and other enterprises to employment, local industries and regional communities. Food is one of the clearest examples of how interconnected these businesses are. A Tasmanian food product can move through primary production, processing and manufacturing, freight and distribution, retail or hospitality, tourism and ultimately into Tasmanian households and communities. The food system also intersects with preventive health, food security, community development, sustainability, waste and the circular economy. Behind this system are thousands of Tasmanian businesses, many of them small, family-owned and regionally based. Eat Well Tasmania recommends that implementation of Tasmania’s Small Business Strategy 2036 recognise Tasmania’s food ecosystem as a significant cross-sector small business network and economic opportunity. Supporting these businesses does more than support individual enterprises. It strengthens regional economies, local employment, supply chains, food resilience, Tasmania’s visitor economy, our brand and the ability of Tasmanians to access Tasmanian food. Our proposition is simple: make Tasmanian food easier to find, choose and procure. Eat Local Tas can build awareness and preference for Tasmanian food. The Tasmanian Food Map can make local producers and businesses easier to find. Tasmanian local food procurement can strengthen the pathways through which households, businesses, organisations and institutions buy local. Together, supported by EWT's statewide connection, engagement and advocacy role, these existing foundations provide an opportunity to strengthen Tasmania's small food business ecosystem.
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Strong alignment with the Small Business Strategy Eat Well Tasmania sees particularly strong alignment between the Strategy and the opportunity to strengthen Eat Local Tas, the Tasmanian Food Map and our longstanding work in Tasmanian local food procurement. Together, these provide existing foundations that could be further developed to support the Strategy’s implementation. The Strategy identifies four themes: People and Connections, Place, Enabling Business and Technology, encompassing networking and collaboration, local purchasing, the Tasmanian brand, the operating environment, digital connectivity and market diversification. EWT’s work intersects strongly with each of these areas.
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1. Eat Local Tas: celebrating and choosing Tasmanian Tasmania produces extraordinary food. The draft Strategy recognises that Tasmania has significant competitive advantages, including world-class agriculture, clean water, strong biosecurity and a reputation for quality, sustainability and authenticity. It also identifies the Tasmanian brand as a strategic asset, built in part on the quality of what Tasmanians grow, make and produce. Eat Local Tas provides an opportunity to translate that strength into greater awareness, connection and support for the small businesses behind our food. Eat Local Tas can celebrate not only Tasmanian products, but the people and businesses behind them; our growers, producers, makers, processors, retailers, hospitality businesses and regional communities. Importantly, this is not a new role for Eat Well Tasmania. EWT has demonstrated that it has the capability to develop and deliver successful statewide initiatives connecting Tasmanians with local food businesses. During COVID-19, EWT developed and delivered the We Eat Local initiative in response to significant disruption to the way Tasmanians sourced food. The initiative was designed to provide reliable information about where to source local seasonal food, encourage Tasmanians to eat well and act as a centralised network enabler for small-to-medium Tasmanian food businesses adapting to the pandemic environment. EWT was able to develop and launch the Tasmanian We Eat Local app within two weeks of receiving funding, supported by a statewide, multi-platform communications and marketing campaign and partnerships with industry and media. The response demonstrated both community appetite for supporting local food and EWT's capacity to mobilise quickly and deliver at scale. The app achieved 8,070 downloads, including 5,327 in its first week, significantly exceeding the initial first-week target of 3,000 downloads. By June 2021, 509 Tasmanian businesses were listed on the platform, spanning producers, retailers and eateries and representing a diverse range of Tasmanian food and regional businesses. The campaign also generated substantial public engagement. Its initial social media activity delivered 843,724 impressions, 27,934 engagements and 4,231 link clicks, alongside significant statewide media coverage. Importantly, this work created foundations that have continued beyond the original COVID response, contributing to the development of EWT's Tasmanian Food Map and strengthening EWT's connections with producers, retailers, hospitality businesses and consumers. Page 5 of 18
The experience also generated lessons that remain highly relevant today. The final campaign report recommended a long-term approach integrating local food promotion into EWT's broader work, continued investment in keeping local food top-of-mind for consumers and further development of the stakeholder networks established through the campaign. Eat Local Tas provides an opportunity to build on that demonstrated capability and take the next step. Supporting Tasmanian food businesses cannot rely solely on asking consumers to “buy local”. We need to create the conditions that make Tasmanian food easy to find, easy to choose and easy to procure. A strengthened Eat Local Tas could provide a statewide platform for storytelling, communications, community engagement and connection that increases the visibility of Tasmanian food businesses, celebrates the people behind them and builds greater awareness of the economic, social and community value of choosing Tasmanian. Integrated with the Tasmanian Food Map and EWT's longstanding work in Tasmanian local food procurement, Eat Local Tas can build on what EWT has already demonstrated it can deliver; moving from a successful response to a period of disruption towards a sustained approach to strengthening Tasmania's local food economy. The opportunity is not to start again, but to build on proven capability and existing infrastructure: making Tasmanian food easier to find, choose and procure, while strengthening the businesses and communities behind it.
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2. Tasmanian Food Map: making local food easier to find For Tasmanians (and visitors to Tasmania) to choose local, they first need to be able to find it. Eat Well Tasmania maintains the Tasmanian Food Map (Directory), providing an important platform for connecting Tasmanians with the people and businesses producing food across our State. There is an opportunity to further develop the Directory as practical infrastructure supporting Tasmania’s small food business ecosystem. Rather than simply operating as a list of producers, the Directory can support connections between producers, consumers, hospitality, retailers, institutions, community organisations and other potential purchasers. This aligns particularly strongly with the Strategy’s Technology theme, including its recognition that digital visibility can help Tasmanian businesses increase brand awareness, diversify markets and make their products and services more accessible. Integrated with Eat Local Tas, the Directory can help create a simple pathway: Find Tasmanian → Choose Tasmanian → Buy Tasmanian.
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3. Tasmanian local food procurement: making local easier to buy Eat Well Tasmania particularly welcomes the Strategy’s recognition of Local Purchasing as an objective. The Strategy acknowledges that buying locally deepens supply-chain connections, supports local jobs and builds a more resilient Tasmanian economy. It also recognises the role of procurement practices in supporting local suppliers and businesses of different sizes, sectors and regions. For Eat Well Tasmania, this connects directly to our longstanding work in Tasmanian local food procurement. EWT has previously undertaken work exploring how local food procurement can strengthen Tasmania’s food system and create better opportunities for Tasmanian food to be purchased locally. We believe this work is increasingly relevant. Local food procurement should extend beyond individual consumer purchasing to consider how Tasmanian food moves into: households and communities retailers and hospitality businesses businesses and workplaces community organisations and institutions tourism and visitor experiences; and government and publicly funded services. The opportunity is to move beyond simply encouraging Tasmanians to “buy local” towards systematically making it easier to procure Tasmanian.
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Convenience and access matter. Feedback received by Eat Well Tasmania through consultations to inform our submission reinforces that willingness to support local does not always translate into the ability to do so. Highly motivated consumers may actively seek out producers, travel to farmgate outlets or source food through direct purchasing models. However, for many Tasmanians, convenience and accessibility remain significant determinants of where and how they purchase food. Making local food procurement easier therefore requires more than increasing consumer awareness. Tasmanian food needs to be visible and accessible through the places where people already shop, eat and engage with their communities. Feedback has particularly highlighted the important role played by independent and locally focused retailers that create pathways to market for smaller producers. For some small food businesses, these relationships can be fundamental to their ongoing viability. Direct-to-consumer channels; including farmgate sales, roadside stalls, markets and other local distribution models; also contribute to a diverse and resilient local food economy. The challenge is therefore not to identify a single preferred pathway to market, but to support a diversity of pathways that make Tasmanian food accessible to more Tasmanians while remaining commercially sustainable for the businesses involved. That means understanding what prevents Tasmanian businesses from accessing local markets, connecting buyers with suppliers, improving awareness of local and seasonal supply and identifying opportunities to strengthen local procurement practices. Eat Well Tasmania does not seek to duplicate specialist procurement services, business advisory organisations or industry bodies. Our value is in our ability to connect, communicate, convene and identify systemic opportunities and barriers across the food system.
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4. Connecting Tasmania’s food businesses The Strategy rightly recognises that strong business networks support collaboration, resilience, information sharing and new opportunities. It identifies roles for government and industry representative organisations in creating spaces for businesses to connect, facilitating introductions and strengthening connections within and across industries. This closely aligns with EWT’s role as a statewide connector. There is an opportunity through Eat Local Tas and EWT’s broader work to provide further regional and statewide opportunities for food-related small businesses to connect with each other, buyers, communities, industry and government. This could include networking and connection opportunities, community engagement, buyer-supplier connections, digital engagement and an accessible membership pathway enabling businesses to remain part of the EWT network. Importantly, food does not sit neatly within a single industry. Connecting businesses across agriculture, hospitality, retail, tourism, health, communities and waste can create opportunities that would not necessarily emerge through traditional sector-based engagement.
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5. Telling Tasmania’s small food business stories Tasmania’s food story is ultimately a story about people. Behind a piece of Tasmanian produce is a grower. Behind a locally made product is a maker. Behind a menu showcasing Tasmanian ingredients is a hospitality business. Behind many of these businesses are families and communities that have invested years; sometimes generations, in their enterprise. Eat Local Tas provides an opportunity to tell those stories. Small business storytelling can build community connection, increase business visibility and help Tasmanians understand the economic and social value created when they choose Tasmanian. It can also showcase the diversity of businesses across our regions and reinforce the Strategy’s recognition that business success does not look the same for everyone. For many Tasmanian businesses, success is not necessarily about becoming bigger. It can mean remaining viable, employing local people, contributing to a community, maintaining quality and continuing to operate in the place they have chosen to call home, an approach recognised in the draft Strategy.
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6. Listening to business and supporting systems change Promotion alone will not address every challenge facing Tasmania’s food businesses. The Strategy acknowledges pressures including rising transport, fuel, materials, insurance and compliance costs, supply-chain disruptions, workforce and skills shortages and particular challenges associated with operating regionally. Food businesses can experience these pressures alongside challenges relating to processing capacity, freight, seasonal production, access to markets and changing retail environments. Feedback received by EWT while developing this submission reinforces these concerns. Small producers have raised the impact of regulatory burden and uncertainty, particularly where requirements designed for larger-scale operations can be difficult for very small businesses to navigate or absorb. Access to appropriately scaled processing infrastructure has also been identified as an issue, including access to small-scale abattoir and processing capacity. These are not simply agricultural production issues. Where a producer cannot economically process, distribute or bring a product to market, it becomes a small business viability and local market access issue. Stakeholders have also highlighted the importance of protecting diverse and commercially viable pathways to market, including independent and locally focused retailers, roadside stalls, farmgate sales, direct-to-consumer models and other channels that enable smaller producers to reach Tasmanian consumers. We are also hearing that access to business development and growth opportunities needs to work for businesses at different stages and scales. Emerging businesses can find themselves too small to access meaningful support, while established small businesses may still struggle to compete for government programs, trade opportunities and investment alongside much larger enterprises. This matters because Tasmania’s small food businesses can deliver benefits well beyond their individual enterprise. They create markets for Tasmanian primary produce, support other local businesses, recover value from food that may otherwise be wasted, employ people, innovate and take Tasmanian products into interstate and international markets. These examples reinforce the importance of considering the whole pathway from production to purchase; and from start-up to sustainable growth; when developing small business policy. “We have built up our Huon Valley business, underpinned by locally grown fruit — much of it waste recovery — to the point where we are now distributed nationally and internationally… When we started, we were ‘too small’ to apply for meaningful grants… so we fall back on hard work, focused relationships with primary producers and the massive support and enthusiasm of our customer base to continue growth.” — Tasmanian small food business, feedback shared with Eat Well Tasmania Page 12 of 18
Eat Well Tasmania does not suggest that it is EWT’s role to solve each of these specialist regulatory, infrastructure or business-support issues. Rather, EWT can provide a mechanism for identifying recurring barriers across the food system, connecting businesses with the appropriate organisations and expertise, and ensuring those experiences are visible to government. Recent experiences within Tasmania’s food system have also reinforced the importance of maintaining diverse pathways to market. A resilient food economy cannot be overly dependent on a small number of pathways between producer and consumer. Stronger local procurement, greater visibility, diversified markets and stronger connections between Tasmanian producers and purchasers can all contribute to resilience. EWT can provide an ongoing mechanism for listening to food businesses and bringing their experiences into broader policy discussions. Sometimes the answer will be connecting a business with existing support. Sometimes the experiences of multiple businesses will indicate a larger structural challenge requiring government and industry attention. Small businesses should not be expected to solve systemic problems one business at a time. EWT can help identify those common issues, bring people together and contribute evidence and practical insights to conversations about systems change.
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What we are hearing from Tasmania’s food community As part of developing this submission, Eat Well Tasmania invited our community and networks to consider: What would make it easier for you to find and buy Tasmanian food? Responses reinforce both the opportunities and the complexity of strengthening Tasmania’s local food economy. We are hearing that Tasmanians want greater access to fresh food grown and produced in Tasmania, but convenience matters. Highly motivated consumers may actively seek out producers, travel to farmgate outlets or use direct purchasing models. Making local food mainstream, however, requires it to be readily available through the places where Tasmanians already shop, eat and engage with their communities. We are hearing about the critical role of independent and locally focused retailers that actively create pathways to market for local producers, alongside farmgate sales, roadside stalls, markets and other direct-to-consumer models. Producers have also shared barriers further upstream, including regulatory burden, access to appropriately scaled processing infrastructure, access to business support and growth opportunities, and the commercial sustainability of different pathways to market. Feedback reinforces that successful connection does not automatically mean commercial sustainability. Models designed to connect producers and consumers need sufficient scale, demand and viable operating models if they are to provide enduring pathways to market. We are also hearing that small food businesses can fall between traditional support mechanisms. Being small should not prevent a promising business from accessing opportunities to develop, while becoming successful should not mean it ceases to benefit from policies designed to strengthen Tasmania’s small business sector. These issues are interconnected. A Tasmanian Food Map can help someone find a producer. Eat Local Tas can help people recognise and choose Tasmanian. Tasmanian local food procurement can strengthen pathways to procure Tasmanian. But if a small business cannot access appropriate processing, navigate regulatory requirements, reach viable markets, participate in sustainable distribution channels or access opportunities that support its growth, promotion alone cannot resolve the problem. This is why Eat Well Tasmania believes the opportunity is both promotional and systemic. Our role can be to connect the pieces — listening to Tasmania’s food businesses and communities, identifying common barriers and opportunities, bringing the appropriate organisations together and ensuring those experiences inform policy, programs and investment. Page 14 of 18
An opportunity for Eat Local Tas Eat Well Tasmania believes there is an opportunity to build upon Eat Local Tas as a practical mechanism supporting implementation of Tasmania’s Small Business Strategy 2036. Rather than establishing another standalone initiative, this could bring together and strengthen existing EWT foundations through an integrated approach: Eat Local Tas: celebrating Tasmanian food and telling the stories of the businesses behind it. Tasmanian Food Map: making producers and local food businesses easier to find and connect with. Tasmanian local food procurement: creating stronger pathways for Tasmanian food to be procured locally. Networking and connection: bringing businesses, buyers, communities, industry and government together. Community engagement and membership: building an ongoing statewide network around Tasmania’s local food economy. Advocacy and systems intelligence: listening to businesses, identifying shared barriers and opportunities and contributing to systems change. Together, these functions create a coherent proposition: Find Tasmanian. Choose Tasmanian. Procure Tasmanian. Connect the businesses. Celebrate the people. Strengthen the system. Eat Well Tasmania would welcome the opportunity to work with the Tasmanian Government, Business Tasmania, industry and other partners to explore how this existing capability could be strengthened and contribute to the Strategy’s Implementation Plan.
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A whole-of-food-ecosystem opportunity Eat Well Tasmania also sees this work within a broader whole-of-food-ecosystem approach. Food intersects with multiple areas of government policy, including Small Business, Agriculture, Tourism, Hospitality, Health, Communities and Waste. EWT is concurrently developing a whole-of-food-ecosystem proposition through the State Budget Priority Statement process, recognising the opportunity for different portfolios to contribute to complementary initiatives while working towards a shared outcome: Tasmanians are connected and eating well. Within that broader model, the Small Business portfolio has a particularly strong connection to Eat Local Tas, Tasmanian local food procurement, the Tasmanian Food Map, small business storytelling, networking and business engagement. Agriculture has an interest in producer viability and market access. Tourism and hospitality have an interest in connecting Tasmania’s food with intrastate, interstate and international visitor and dining experiences. Health has an interest in access to fresh, seasonal and nutritious Tasmanian food. Communities have an interest in food resilience, food security and regional connection. Waste has an interest in preventing food waste and strengthening circular food systems. These objectives do not need to operate independently. A coordinated approach provides an opportunity for individual portfolios to achieve their respective policy objectives while collectively strengthening Tasmania’s food economy and food system. This is consistent with the Strategy’s proposed approach to implementation, which envisages Implementation Plans bringing together existing and new activities, with specific actions and measurable outcomes developed in collaboration with business and industry.
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Recommendations Eat Well Tasmania recommends that the Tasmanian Government: 1. Recognise Tasmania’s food ecosystem as a significant cross-sector small business network within implementation of Tasmania’s Small Business Strategy 2036. 2. Recognise Tasmanian local food procurement as an important mechanism for strengthening small business, local supply chains, regional economies and resilience, building upon the Strategy’s Local Purchasing objective. 3. Explore opportunities to strengthen Eat Local Tas as an implementation mechanism under the Strategy, connecting local food procurement, business promotion and storytelling, networking, community engagement and systems advocacy. 4. Recognise and strengthen the Tasmanian Food Map as infrastructure supporting the visibility and discoverability of Tasmanian food businesses and connections between producers and potential purchasers. 5. Create opportunities for stronger connections between Tasmania’s food-related small businesses and local purchasers, including hospitality, retail, institutions, community organisations and government. 6. Ensure
the
experiences
of
food-related
small
businesses
inform
ongoing
implementation of the Strategy, including mechanisms to identify common barriers that require policy or systems-level responses. 7. Explore a strategic partnership with Eat Well Tasmania through development of the Strategy's Implementation Plan, recognising EWT's 30-year history, statewide food-system relationships and existing Eat Local Tas, Tasmanian Food Map and local food procurement foundations, and identify opportunities for EWT to contribute to delivery of relevant Strategy objectives. 8. Recognise
that
strengthening
local
food
procurement
requires
diverse
and
commercially viable pathways to market, including independent and locally focused retailers, hospitality, direct-to-consumer, farmgate and other distribution models, alongside consideration of the regulatory, processing, distribution and infrastructure barriers affecting small food businesses. 9. Explore opportunities for coordinated, cross-portfolio investment that enables government portfolios to collectively strengthen Tasmania's food system while delivering complementary outcomes across small business, agriculture, tourism, hospitality, health, communities and waste.
Conclusion Tasmania does not need to manufacture a reason to support its local food businesses. We already grow, make and produce extraordinary food. The opportunity now is to make it easier to find, choose and procure Tasmanian, while strengthening the businesses, people and communities behind it. Eat Well Tasmania has spent 30 years connecting Tasmanians around food. Through Eat Local Tas, the Tasmanian Food Map and our longstanding work in Tasmanian local food procurement, we have foundations that can be built upon rather than starting again. Tasmania's Small Business Strategy 2036 provides an opportunity to build on these foundations rather than starting again. Eat Well Tasmania would welcome the opportunity to work with the Tasmanian Government, Business Tasmania, industry and Tasmania's small business community through development of the Implementation Plan, helping make Tasmanian food easier to find, choose and procure, while strengthening the businesses, people and communities behind it.
Our Vision: Tasmanians are connected and eating well.