Food & Agribusiness Network (FAN)
Cluster Connect Partipant
Food & Agribusiness Network (FAN)
The Food & Agribusiness Network (FAN) is one of Australia’s leading agrifood industry clusters, supporting businesses from primary production through to advanced food and beverage manufacturing. While rooted in southeast Queensland, FAN plays a national role through federal industry programs and cross-cluster collaboration.
Business Type
Founded
Location
Enterprise Scale
Target Market
Focus
Background
FAN was established by local industry leaders who saw that practical, peer-led learning was missing from the regional agrifood ecosystem.
Supported initially by Sunshine Coast Council and later by Australian Government funding through Food Innovation Australia Ltd (FIAL), FAN was created to act as a neutral, trusted connector. It was never designed to take equity, own IP, or compete with its members; its role was to convene, amplify, and enable.
From the outset, FAN has been industry-led. Its programs, priorities, and advocacy are shaped by what members are experiencing on the ground.
The Challenge
Agrifood businesses often struggle not for lack of ideas, but because they lack access to practical capacity building. Small to medium regional businesses are frequently time and resource-poor, operating in complex environments without clear pathways to develop skills, confidence, or strategic insight.
At the same time, expectations are rising:
- More complex and interconnected supply chains
- Increasing focus on sustainability, provenance, and transparency
- Rapid advances in food technology and manufacturing.
Existing innovation and accelerator programs are often geared toward venture-backed models. This works for some, but leaves many capable agrifood businesses without the tools and networks they need.
FAN identified this gap early: the need for trusted, peer-led capacity building that helps businesses learn from each other, build confidence, and engage with innovation on their own terms.
What They Changed
FAN has built a practical, relationship-led model that supports agrifood businesses across all stages of maturity. This model for support is now being implemented at a national level – via the work that FAN does as the Federal Government’s Agrifood Industry Partner Organisation for the Industry Growth Program (IGP). FAN is the project lead for Cluster Connect, working alongside partner clusters including
- Noongar Land Enterprise (Northern Territory)
- FermenTas (Tasmania)
- Central Coast Industry Connect (NSW)
- Food & Fibre Gippsland (Victoria).
Together, these clusters provide national coverage across regions and subsectors.
Cluster Connect core offerings for Industry Growth Program Participants include:
Capability & Knowledge Sharing: Monthly webinars with strategic partners and specialists tailored to real business questions.
Delegations & Ecosystem Access: Preparation and facilitation at events like evokeAG, introducing members to wider networks.
Accelerator Programs: Bespoke accelerators with Startupbootcamp, focused on practical capability rather than theoretical startup models.
Connection as Infrastructure: Warm introductions to peers, investors, and agencies, unlocking opportunities through single conversations.
Program Experience
FAN operates as a conduit rather than a gatekeeper.
Its work is built on trusted relationships and a belief in collaboration over competition. Internally, this is often described as building a “coalition of the willing:” bringing together people and organisations who want to make progress and are prepared to work constructively to do so.
Through Cluster Connect and the Industry Growth Program, FAN supports businesses referred nationally, while remaining anchored in regional delivery and real-world industry needs.
Outcomes So Far
FAN’s impact is best described through accumulated momentum:
- Hundreds of businesses connected across regions, sectors, and stages
- Increased visibility and voice for small and regional enterprises at national roundtables
- Access to programs, partnerships, and opportunities that would otherwise be missed
- Capability uplift through peer learning and tailored accelerators
Time and again, outcomes trace back to the same source: an introduction leading to conversation, and then action.
Sector Impact
FAN’s impact is felt most through the quality of connection it enables.
By bringing businesses, partners and support organisations into regular contact, FAN helps reduce fragmentation across the agrifood sector. Businesses gain earlier visibility of opportunities, learn from peers facing similar challenges, and engage more confidently with programs, markets, and policy conversations.
Regionally, this has supported a more connected and capable food and beverage ecosystem across Southeast Queensland, while nationally FAN’s role in Cluster Connect has strengthened collaboration between regional clusters and improved access to support for businesses operating outside capital cities.
FAN doesn’t prescribe solutions – it creates the conditions for learning, collaboration, and momentum to emerge organically.
Goals & Vision
FAN’s mission:
To share knowledge, cultivate capabilities and innovation, grow and extend connections, and advance the profile of our industry, our region, and most importantly, the people that produce our food and beverages. Key priorities are to:
- build a strong innovation ecosystem
- deliver programs and activities that support and engage members
- embed a model that demonstrates sustainability, value and relevance.
Advice for Other Startups
FAN shows that growth is strongest when it happens collectively:
- Learning through connection: Peer-to-peer insights and industry relationships open pathways that would otherwise be missed.
- Collaboration as a capability: Trusted networks help businesses navigate complexity with confidence.
- Support tailored to real needs: Solutions work best when informed by those doing the work.
By creating structured opportunities for businesses to learn and connect, FAN helps the sector navigate complexity and uncover opportunities that would otherwise be missed.