The Export Market Development Grants Act 1997 mandates an independent review of the program every five years.
On 15 March 2025, Senator the Hon Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism announced Mr Tim Yeend, former Associate Secretary for Trade and Investment at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia’s most senior trade and investment official), would lead this review.
Minister Farrell has asked for the review to be completed by November 2025.
Further details will be published shortly. If you have questions about this review, please email emdgreview@austrade.gov.au.
Austrade sought feedback in 2023 from EMDG recipients, businesses and other stakeholders. This was done to consider improvements to the EMDG program that would:
Findings from this consultation and previous reviews helped inform changes to the EMDG program.
Read the EMDG program strategic refocus - consultation summary.
Senator the Hon Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism, released the EMDG Operational Review in 2023.
To help improve delivery of the EMDG program, the review considered program design, client experience and communications.
Read the Operational review.
In 2020, the Review of financial assistance to SME exporters, the Fisher Review, was published. It is the most recent independent review of the EMDG legislation.
The Fisher Review considered how government could better assist small and medium exporters to increase export sales through EMDG. It recommended simplifying and streamlining EMDG to help SME exporters.
Read the Review of financial assistance to SME exporters.
This 2023 report analyses how businesses that received a grant have performed. Austrade’s Office of the Chief Economist conducted this research.
The analysis shows:
Read the Assessment on the value of EMDG.
This report profiles EMDG recipients, including:
Statistics across 3 rounds of the EMDG program show:
Ten years’ worth of EMDG reimbursement scheme and program data shows, on average, exporters have:
Read the Profile of EMDG recipients as of February 2025.
For statistics on individual grant rounds, see Statistics and data below.
This survey, undertaken in January 2022, measured grantees' experiences with EMDG Round 1.
Read the EMDG Applicant Survey Results 2022 (DOCX 392KB).
Austrade engaged Paper Giant in 2022 to survey grant agents about their experiences with EMDG Round 1. This information helped Austrade to improve the EMDG program, including communication.
Read the Export Market Development Grants Program Research Report, including an evaluation summary.
Read key statistics on past grant rounds including application data, export market analysis and grant delivery data.