Fresh from Australia's fruit bowl, a historic shipment of Craig Van Rooyen's lychees has touched down in the United States.
It is the first-ever consignment of lychees to be delivered direct from Australia to New York.
The Bundaberg farmer has looked close to home when employing help to ship his product across the globe.
"This is a long time in the making. We've been working on this project to supply into America for about nine years," Mr Van Rooyen said.
"We sent about 23 consignments to Los Angeles, and we actually sent the first consignment from Australia ever that went directly to New York.
"They received it and they loved the fruit."
Mr Van Rooyen also exports to Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Canada and the Middle East.
He admits shipping to New York was a gamble.
"Our fantastic marketing agent organised it and said, 'Would you be prepared to take a risk and send it there?' and I said, 'Well, yeah! They've loved it in Los Angeles, so let's try this other destination'," Mr Van Rooyen said.
"But if it did work, it was a potential market for the future. So, it was a risk worth taking."
Many hands make light work
Despite the pay-off, Mr Van Rooyen said the lychee season came with challenges due to the pandemic.
"It was very difficult to find enough staff. We have a great core of people that come back year after year, but that was about 40 people and we really needed 100 people," he said.
"Finding those people was not too difficult but keeping them here with all the COVID restrictions was challenging.
"We had to test people, and if they were feeling slightly ill they had to stay at home — so most days we were 20 to 25 people down."
But thanks to some local recruits, the farm was able to see out the lychee season.
"A lot of school and university students, and they all said they want to come next year, so it's great."
