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man and woman kneeling in field smiling

man and woman on farm smile to camera holding a plant

"Last year, we actually decided to start pulling out some of the vineyard and then we were on a search for what to do with the land once the vines had gone."

farm with rows of dirt and small baby plants sticking out

"But you can only call it tequila if it comes from a very specific area of Mexico, similar to champagne, so we will be looking to produce agave spirit."
Agave tequilana plant growing in tropics.

"Everywhere we go, we tell people about agave and how useful it is, it's multi-functional and we hope can be a multi-income stream."

"It's basically a sugar production plant, the sugar can go into ethanol, which we can drink as the spirit, or it can go into bio-ethanol that can be then used for sustainable aviation fuel,"
Ms Burton said.

Rows of spiky, blue agave plants with sugar cane plants in the background

"Things like soil, climate and rainfall, but the key thing down in South Australia is the frost risk … it's a lot colder here and the tequilana doesn't like frost,"
Ms Burton said.

woman in black cardigan smiles to camera holding plant in black pot

man and woman look at rows of agave planted in a field

"Everybody thinks I'm a nutter because I've been raving on about agave for years, and to finally, actually see it in the ground and people really realising what a versatile and useful crop it can be for Australia is very exciting."

Key stories of the day for Australian primary producers, delivered each weekday afternoon.