EMDG grants for
METS exporters.
The Export Market Development Grant is one of the best tools Australian exporters have — and one of the most underused by mining equipment, technology and services companies. We check your eligibility, support the application, and tie the grant into an export strategy that actually wins work.
Winning export work costs money before it earns any. EMDG is designed to share that cost.
The Export Market Development Grant, or EMDG, is an Australian Government grant program administered by Austrade. It exists to help eligible small and medium-sized businesses grow their exports by contributing towards the cost of eligible export marketing and promotion — the travel, trade shows, market research, and overseas-facing marketing you spend on long before the first order lands.
That's the whole logic of the scheme. Exporting is a front-loaded investment: you fly to the market, exhibit at the show, build the collateral, and chase the leads for months before any of it turns into revenue. An export market development grant takes some of the sting out of that upfront spend so more Australian businesses can afford to compete overseas.
Eligibility in plain English — and the kind of spend the grant is built around.
The precise rules are Austrade's and are assessed on application. This is the shape of it — the questions worth answering before you apply.
Eligible Australian SMEs
EMDG is aimed at Australian small and medium-sized businesses that are ready to market an eligible product, service, or piece of intellectual property overseas. Business size and export readiness are part of the test — so the first move is checking where you sit against the current criteria.
An eligible export
The grant supports businesses promoting an eligible product, service, or IP to foreign buyers. For METS and manufacturing companies, that's typically your equipment, technology, or technical services — the things overseas mining and industrial operators actually buy.
Exhibitions & missions
Trade fairs, exhibitions, and government trade missions are core export-promotion activity — the kind of spend the scheme is designed around. If you're exhibiting at an overseas mining show or joining a mission, that cost is worth scoping against the grant.
Overseas marketing
Advertising, promotional material, and marketing aimed at foreign buyers — the work of building demand in a target market. This is different from the cost of making or shipping the product, which is not what the grant is for.
Market research & travel
Researching a market and travelling to it to build relationships are recognised parts of export development. The categories and any limits are defined by Austrade, so we scope your specific spend against the current program rules.
An honest eligibility read
Before anything else, we tell you whether you're likely to be eligible and roughly what's claimable — so you don't sink time into an application that was never going to land. No false promises, no guaranteed figures.
The grant that most mining suppliers could use — and quietly don't.
Plenty of METS companies have never claimed an EMDG grant, or claimed once, found the paperwork painful, and never went back. It's not that they weren't spending on exports — they were flying to shows, exhibiting, and marketing overseas. They just weren't tracking that spend as claimable export promotion, and no one joined the dots for them.
The other reason is focus. The generalist EMDG consultants and grants agents who dominate this space work across every industry — hospitality, food, tech, retail. Very few understand how a mining equipment or technology exporter actually sells, which markets matter, or how METS export spend maps onto the scheme. So the advice stays generic and the claim stays small.
That's the gap we sit in. We run export programs for METS and industrial exporters as our core work — this isn't a grants side-hustle. When we look at your export activity, we see it through the lens of someone who has built and run the kind of program the grant is meant to support.
Four steps — from "am I eligible?" to a grant that funds a real plan.
Eligibility check
We start by reading your business and your export activity against Austrade's current criteria and telling you, plainly, whether an EMDG application is worth pursuing and roughly what's claimable. If it isn't a fit, we say so — that honesty is the point of using an export-focused partner rather than a form-filler.
Application support
We help you structure and document your eligible export marketing spend the way the program recognises it, and support the application itself — so the claim is clean, defensible, and doesn't fall over on a technicality. You stay in control; we do the heavy lifting and the detail.
Tie it to a real strategy
This is where we're different. Instead of treating EMDG as year-end paperwork, we plan it into your export strategy — which markets you're entering, which shows and campaigns you'll run — so the eligible spend is deliberate and the grant offsets a plan that was going to generate revenue anyway.
Run it year on year
Export marketing isn't a one-off, and neither is the grant. As an embedded partner we keep the records straight, keep the strategy moving, and keep the EMDG planning in step with what you're actually doing in-market. The Export OS keeps the pipeline and the spend in one place.
EMDG, answered plainly.
What is the EMDG grant?
EMDG stands for the Export Market Development Grant. It's an Australian Government grant program, administered by Austrade, that helps eligible small and medium-sized businesses grow their exports by contributing towards the cost of eligible export marketing and promotion. The idea is simple: winning work overseas costs money before it earns any — travel, trade shows, marketing, market research — and the grant is designed to share some of that upfront cost so more Australian businesses give exporting a real go.
Who is eligible for EMDG?
In broad terms, EMDG is aimed at Australian small and medium-sized businesses that are ready to market and promote an eligible product, service, or piece of intellectual property to overseas buyers. Austrade sets the specific eligibility conditions — things like your business size, the nature of what you export, and your export readiness — and those conditions are assessed on application. Because the program's rules and rounds are updated over time, the honest answer is that eligibility is worth checking properly against the current Austrade criteria rather than assuming. That eligibility check is usually the first thing we do.
Can mining services companies claim EMDG?
Often, yes. METS companies — mining equipment, technology, and services businesses — are exactly the kind of exporter the scheme exists to support: they sell technical products and services into overseas mining markets and spend real money getting in front of those buyers. Eligibility still depends on your specific circumstances and Austrade's assessment, but the export marketing activity a METS company runs — international trade shows, missions, market visits, overseas-facing marketing — is typically the sort of activity the grant is built around. We specialise in this sector, so we know how METS export spend tends to map onto the scheme.
What expenses can EMDG cover?
The scheme is designed around eligible export promotion and marketing expenses — the money you spend building demand for your product in overseas markets rather than the cost of making or shipping it. In practice that commonly includes things like overseas marketing and advertising, trade fairs, exhibitions and trade missions, market research, and promotional material aimed at foreign buyers. The precise categories and any limits are defined by Austrade and can change between grant rounds, so we scope your claimable spend against the current program rules as part of the engagement.
Do I need an EMDG consultant to apply?
You don't legally need one — you can apply directly through Austrade. But a good EMDG consultant earns their keep by making sure you're actually eligible before you invest time in an application, that your export marketing spend is structured and documented in a way the program recognises, and that the grant is tied to a real export plan rather than treated as a box-ticking exercise. Where we're different from a pure grants agent is that we don't just fill in the form — we help you build and run the export strategy the grant is meant to support.
How does EMDG fit with the rest of my export strategy?
This is the part most businesses miss. EMDG works best when it's planned into an export strategy from the start, not bolted on at tax time. If you know which markets you're targeting, which trade shows and marketing activities you'll run, and how you'll follow up the leads they generate, then your eligible export spend is deliberate and well-documented — and the grant becomes a genuine offset against a plan that was going to produce revenue anyway. We build the strategy and the EMDG planning together so the two reinforce each other.
Are there other export grants in Australia?
EMDG is the best-known federal export grant, but it isn't the only support available. State and territory governments run their own trade mission and export assistance programs, and bodies like Austrade and industry groups run market-access initiatives that can sit alongside a grant. When we map your export grants in Australia, we look across the whole picture — federal, state, and industry — so you're not leaving support on the table or double-counting the same spend.
Two ways in.
Both low-risk.
Whether you want a proper read on your EMDG eligibility, or you want the grant built into a real export plan — both paths start the same way.
Growth Audit
A deep assessment of your export readiness and your best-fit market — including how EMDG could offset the spend. You get a written plan, and the fee is refunded when you start a retainer.
Book a Growth Audit →Strategy Call
Tell us what you're spending on exports and where you're headed. We'll give you an honest read on EMDG eligibility and how we'd approach the claim and the strategy behind it.
Book a 30-Minute Call →Not sure if we're the right fit? Take the 3-minute export readiness quiz →