Primary sector recovery grants

Funding is open to all primary sector businesses in Nelson Tasman that sustained damage during the severe weather events in June and July 2025.

To be eligible, your business:

• Must derive over 51 percent of its income from production or harvesting of food and/or fibre in the Nelson Tasman region. (For collectively owned Māori land, this consideration does not apply.)
• Must have production properties that sustained damage in the storms and floods.

Grants can be used for:

• Cleaning up silt and debris on production land.
• Removing debris in and around aquaculture farms.
• Removing fallen trees from boundary fences, riparian zones, and key access ways.
• Clearing key tracks.
• Infrastructure identified as being essential for production, but where costs cannot be met by insurance.
• Material costs of fences and culverts.
• Costs of farm or other machinery to undertake recovery activities. 

The grants are to support the clearing, repair, and replacement of primary production assets not covered by insurance.

Grants cannot be used to cover the exact same activities or eligible expenses funded through other sources. 

Repairs should be essential for ongoing business operations and not new development or activities.

Urgent purchases to replace damaged/lost feed will only be considered on a cases-by-case basis where there is an immediate animal welfare concern.

Grants also do not cover:

• Labour for regrassing and replanting.
• Purchase of livestock, shellfish, fish, spat etc to replace lost stock.
• Purchase of trees, vines, rootstock, seeds including for riparian/native replanting.
• Household-related costs (may be eligible for other assistance).
• Repair of buildings and structures.

This funding is to support all primary sector businesses, including:

• Agriculture (pastural, arable, production livestock)
• Forestry (plantation, woodlot)
• Commercial fisheries
• Aquaculture
• Horticulture
• Viticulture
• Apiculture.

Applications will be assessed by a panel, which will include representatives from Tasman District Council and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

If your grant request is approved, we’ll contact you and provide an indication of when the money will be paid. We’ll also be in touch if your application doesn’t meet the criteria and is unsuccessful.

Keep copies of your records, such as receipts, invoices and quotes. Grants will be monitored to ensure they are being used appropriately.

If you have any questions please call us on 03 543 8400 or email mdrf@tasman.govt.nz.