Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wants Australia to ride on the back of a future dining boom as the mining boom declines.
Mr Rudd on Tuesday was campaigning among vegetable growers in the Labor seat of Braddon in northwest Tasmania, the state with the highest unemployment rate in Australia at 8.2 per cent.
Voter support for federal Labor is collapsing in Tasmania's north with predictions the party could lose Braddon and neighbouring Bass.
Mr Rudd said he hoped innovation would help food businesses cash in on the "Asian-led" dining boom.
Australian and Tasmanian products carried a premium in regional markets such as Asia, he said.
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"We've got a mining boom, we're moving towards a dining boom.
"The food halls and restaurants and the kitchens of Asia are looking for clean, green quality food.
"There's no cleaner, greener place than the island of Tasmania," Mr Rudd said.
He promised vegetable growers $10 million over three years if Labor is re-elected, to help increase jobs and productivity.
The Tasmanian state government would add $5 million to the federal government's contribution and the money would go towards better irrigation and drainage systems and precision farming technology.
Touring the maintenance sheds for harvesters for the Simplot food processing operation Mr Rudd admired a carrot digger that can harvest 30 tonnes an hour.
"This shed is full of boys' toys," he said.
Mr Rudd also chatted to Phil Kelly, a 20-year-old who has just finished his apprenticeship in mechanics and had who bought his shiny tool box with a federal government grant.
Mr Rudd told him Labor would up that grant to $6000.
The prime minister had to return to Launceston by car after fog rolled in over the Devonport airport and prevented his plane from landing to take him to his next mystery destination back on the mainland.
