QJJ wins $176,731 NSW Government grant to expand Moama factory

Moama, 27 October 2026

We've got news, and it's the good kind.

This morning the NSW Minister for Agriculture and Regional NSW, Tara Moriarty, announced that Quincey Jones Jelly Preserves Co. has been awarded $176,731 under the NSW Sustainable Communities Program – Business and Industry Round to upgrade our food manufacturing facility at 1/1 Eddy Avenue, Moama.

We're one of just 20 projects funded across the southern Murray-Darling Basin in this $50 million round. The program is funded by the Australian Government and delivered by the NSW Government, and it exists to back businesses that keep jobs and economic activity in river towns like ours. We're thrilled, we're grateful, and we're already rolling up our sleeves.

What we're building

If you've ever visited the factory, you'll know the truth: every single jar of QJJ is filled, capped and labelled by hand. It's lovely and it's slow. Demand has been running ahead of what our little kitchen can make, and this grant fixes that.

A quick word for the purists: some things will stay exactly as they are. Our berry jams, with all that suspended fruit, will still be poured by hand so every jar gets its fair share of berries. But for sauces, toppings and chutneys the filling machine takes over. The capping machine is going to save our team's wrists big time. Possibly a bit late for my own tennis elbow after ten years of twisting lids by hand, but at least nobody else on the team will have to earn theirs that way.

Together with our own matching investment, it's a $356,000 project that delivers:

• A 300-litre steam-jacketed cooking kettle – triple the batch size of our current kettles
• Commercial produce-processing equipment – so fruit and veg prep can be done quickly and consistently every time.
• An automated filling, capping and labelling line – hot-filling straight from the kettle
• A new insulated clean-room kitchen – built with materials from local businesses and regional trades, inside our existing Moama premises

The result: at least two and a half times our current output, and a safer, less back-breaking day for the team. Same recipes. Same 100% Australian fruit. Same small-batch care. Just a lot more jars.

Why it matters beyond our four walls

New local jobs. More capacity means more hands – production operators, warehouse and fulfilment, and a wholesale sales role. All in Moama, all ongoing, and designed to upskill our local workforce in preservation and add value to our amazing local produce.

A better deal for growers. Here's the thing about preserves: we don't care what the fruit looks like. Hail-marked, sunburnt, oddly shaped – it's all flavour to us. With more capacity, we can buy a lot more of that second-grade fruit from district growers that would otherwise be dumped or left on the tree. That's less food waste, and more value squeezed out of every drop of water that went into growing it. It also means growers earn income from a bigger share of each harvest when hail, heat or a wet summer takes the gloss off the first-grade crop, which makes local horticulture that bit more resilient to whatever climate throws at it. We've committed to lifting what we spend with local growers by at least 50%.

Money flowing into the region, not around it. Our jars go to nearly 26,000 customers all over Australia, and we're building export channels through the Flavours of NSW stand at Fine Food Australia and Austrade's Business Matching Program. Until now, we couldn't have filled an export order even if we'd won one. Now we can say yes.

A word from Tim

"When we started QJJ as a company in 2019, it was a couple of pots on a stove and a lot of optimism. Seven years and 70 medals later, the bottleneck was never demand – it was the kettle. This grant, and the matching investment from our own shareholders, means the next chapter of Quincey Jones gets made right here in Moama, with local fruit and local people. I can't tell you how much that means to us."

Minister Moriarty said the round is about backing the future of businesses and industries in the southern Basin to deliver jobs and build long-term resilience.

Thank you

To the Regional NSW team at the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, to Murray River Council and Cr Joy Allan, to David Farley MP, and to the 179 everyday Australians who backed us in our Birchal capital raise in July – that raise was specifically to fund this expansion, and the government has now effectively doubled it. And to every one of you who has ever bought a jar: this is your doing too.

What happens next

Once the funding deed is signed, purchase orders go out the same day (every quote is already sitting in a folder on Tim's desk). Construction and equipment arrive through 2027, with hiring as each stage comes online. We'll share photos of the big kettle arriving; it's going to be a moment.

In the meantime, the best way to celebrate with us is the obvious one. Browse the full range here – every jar is still hand-poured, for now.

More about the program: Australian Government Sustainable Communities Program

Media enquiries: Tim Harley, Founder & Managing Director – 0403 444 259 – admin@qjj.com.au