Best States to Sell Produce or Run a Farm-Stay in Australia: Food Rules and Agritourism Compared

Victoria's FoodTrader platform makes it the easiest state to sell produce across multiple councils with one registration, Tasmania is the most generous for small, informal sales to friends and family, and NSW has the most purpose-built farm-stay framework in its 2022 Agritourism Code. Here's the full state-by-state comparison.

Victoria is the easiest to trade across council lines, Tasmania the most generous for informal sales

Selling eggs, produce or home-cooked food, running a home business, or offering farm-stay accommodation each sits on a different approval track to food safety, and both tracks vary by state. This comparison draws on our full Selling, Home Business & Farm-Stay Rules series.

Food registration: one state actually streamlined it

Victoria's FoodTrader platform is the standout here: register once with your principal council and trade anywhere in the state via a Statement of Trade, instead of re-registering with every council you sell into. No other state offers anything equivalent. Queensland sits at the opposite end — its Food Act 2006 requires a separate council licence per council traded in, with no statewide streamlining at all. South Australia's Food Act 2001 uses a straightforward notification system with no separate licensing tier, simpler than Queensland's approach though not as portable as Victoria's. Tasmania's Food Act 2003 uses a risk classification system with a dual-tiered egg threshold — under 20 dozen eggs a week requires notification, and under 20 birds exempts occasional sales to friends and family entirely, the most generous informal-sales carve-out we found anywhere.

Home business approval, state by state

NSW's Codes SEPP provides a dedicated home business exemption, and Victoria's Clause 52.11 does the same, both running on a separate track from food registration. Western Australia draws its own, more granular distinction: a "home business" generally needs planning approval, while a "home occupation" generally doesn't — a split other states don't make explicitly. South Australia and Tasmania both assess home business under one single statewide planning code (SA's Planning and Design Code, Tasmania's Tasmanian Planning Scheme), meaning the rule reads the same whichever council you're in. Queensland again has no unified statewide code at all, leaving thresholds to each council's own planning scheme.

Farm-stay accommodation, state by state

NSW's 2022 Agritourism Code is the most explicit, purpose-built farm-stay framework on this list, covering farm-stay, farm-gate and farm-experience premises on RU-zoned land, with individual councils like Wollondilly capping it at 12 bedrooms under their own Local Environmental Plan. Victoria's Farming Zone bed-and-breakfast exemption applies across a wide set of councils with real rural land (Cardinia, Yarra Ranges, Mornington Peninsula and others), with distinctive wind-farm and mining setback requirements layered on. Western Australia's 2026 Short-Term Rental Accommodation reform exempts hosted STRA (where the host lives on-site) from planning approval entirely statewide — a genuinely different, broader-reaching approach than a farm-specific code. Queensland and the Northern Territory are the most fragmented: QLD leaves it to individual council planning schemes with no statewide farm-stay code, and the NT's Priority food risk classification system runs several approval bodies (NT Health, Development Assessment Services, Building Advisory Services) in parallel rather than through one process.

The scorecard, if selling and farm-stay matter most to you

• Easiest to trade across multiple councils: Victoria, via the FoodTrader platform — register once, trade statewide.
• Most generous informal/small-scale sales exemption: Tasmania, where under-20-bird sales to friends and family need no notification at all.
• Simplest food notification system overall: South Australia — one straightforward notification tier, no separate licensing step.
• Most purpose-built farm-stay framework: NSW's 2022 Agritourism Code, specifically designed for farm-stay, farm-gate and farm-experience premises.
• Broadest short-term-stay exemption: Western Australia's 2026 hosted-STRA reform, which exempts the host-present case from planning approval entirely, statewide.
• Most fragmented, council-by-council picture: Queensland, with no statewide home business or farm-stay code of any kind, and a separate food licence required per council traded in.

The council layer still decides the specifics

A favourable state-level system doesn't remove council-level variation entirely — Victoria's Farming Zone exemption still depends on whether your specific council has genuine Farming Zone or Green Wedge land (several inner Melbourne councils don't), and NSW's Agritourism Code applies to RU-zoned land specifically, not every property in the state. Check our by-council tools for the state you're considering, and see the full Best Places to Homestead in Australia comparison for how this pillar stacks up against climate, livestock, and off-grid rules.

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