COUNTRYSIDE entrepreneurs are invited to check out the range of grants available for rural 'Dragon's Den' style businesses at next week's Chepstow Show.

The grants are from Adventa's new 'Aspirational Monmouthshire' prog­ramme – part of a pot amounting to £217,500 – and are aimed at helping the county's rural businesses bring innovative ideas to fruition.

You can get the full details at Adventa's stand at Chepstow Show, Broadwell Farm, Crick on August 13.

Setting out to realise the potential of Monmouthshire's rural businesses and communities, Adventa's rural development programme aims to stimulate entrepreneurial and organic growth by offering support and grants for rural enterprise.

Programme manager, Cath John, said: "Our exciting new programme has a focus on supporting innovative ideas and piloting new approaches.

"Anyone who thinks they meet our criteria is welcome to look us up at the show or get in touch with us at our new offices in Shire Hall, Monmouth. There's a tasty variety of grants available and Adventa can provide up to 50 per cent funding."

For appetisers, there's up to £2,500 available for rural businesses looking for financial support to buy small specialist equipment for a new and innovative venture. These capital equipment grants can be used to purchase equipment such as new ICT items, specialist printers and food labelling machines.

With local produce very much on Adventa's menu, food producers can apply for financial support to develop a locally produced, added value, new product.

Capital grants of up to £5,000 are available and Adventa can also offer development support from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC) Food Centre. Examples of activities eligible for grant support include refurbishment or development of new facilities (where planning permission is in place), packaging or labelling equipment. Revenue grants up to £2,500 are also available for activities such as recipe development and marketing activity for new products.

Farmers wishing to open Farm Shops are other potential beneficiaries of the grants; capital funds up to £5,000 are available for farm shop development or refurbishment (where planning permission is in place).

Owners of farm shops can apply for revenue grants up to £2,500 to help them develop new marketing activities – linking with other farm shops, targeting different markets or developing new products, such as Sunday lunch packs for visitors.

And for dessert, there are sweeteners for anyone considering developing a food/farm tourism attraction, with capital grants up to £5,000 available where planning permission is in place. And accommodation providers setting out to attract walkers could be eligible for capital grants up to £5,000 for the provision of additional or improved facilities for walkers such as drying and storage facilities.

For more information visit Adventa's stand at Chepstow Show, phone 01633 748311, email [email protected]">[email protected] or visit the website http://www.Adventa.org.uk">www.Adventa.org.uk.