Queensland and California signed a five year Memorandum of Cooperation on agricultural innovation in Sacramento on 2 September 2026. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli and California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis signed the agreement, which links the two farming regions across research, commercialisation, trade and skills, with agricultural technology and climate resilience at its centre.
BeeSTAR attended the ceremony as an invited Queensland agtech startup, one of the innovation companies the agreement is designed to help move between the two markets.
A welcome from the Premier
Premier Crisafulli met BeeSTAR founder and CEO Ray Kwon at the event and welcomed the company’s presence, saying he was glad and grateful to see a Queensland agtech startup on the ground in Sacramento. For a company built in Brisbane, the signing carried a practical meaning: its home state and the world’s largest almond producing region committing to work together on exactly the kind of technology BeeSTAR builds.
Groundwork for US entry
Around the ceremony, BeeSTAR held working discussions with Trade and Investment Queensland (TIQ) and with Austrade, the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, on the company’s entry into the United States market. BeeSTAR also met Californian agricultural organisations to begin building the local relationships a pollination technology company needs on the ground. California’s almond orchards are the single largest managed pollination event in the world, which makes the state the most consequential market for pollination data infrastructure.
References
Office of the Governor of California, announcement, 3 September 2026. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/03/california-and-the-australian-state-of-queensland-ink-new-partnership-to-accelerate-climate-resilience-agricultural-technology-and-innovation/
Inside State Government, agreement details. https://www.insidestategovernment.com.au/queensland-govt-secures-5-year-agricultural-growth-deal-with-california/