#89: From Schoolteacher to International Lychee Exporter with Krystal Caton from Lush Lychees

G’day and welcome to the A Place to Call Home Podcast, a podcast sharing the stories of people building a life in agriculture across rural Australia.

In this episode, I sit down with Krystal Caton, co-owner of Lush Lychees near Rockhampton in Central Queensland and a 2025 Nuffield Australia Scholar.

Krystal shares her journey from growing up outside agriculture and working as a schoolteacher, to managing cattle properties with her husband Paul, buying their first investments and eventually taking a leap into the lychee industry with absolutely no experience growing lychees.

What started as a run-down orchard has grown into a successful family business, exporting premium lychees around the world, expanding their orchards and developing a farm shop that has become an experience for the local community.

We also dive into Krystal’s Nuffield Scholarship, where she explored how family farms can capture more value from the assets they already have, rather than simply focusing on producing more. We talk about the lessons she learnt travelling the world and how she has started putting those ideas into practice through new products and partnerships.

This is a conversation about having a go, recognising opportunities, learning along the way and thinking differently about how we build profitable and sustainable farming businesses for the next generation.

In this episode, we chat about:

🌾 Krystal’s journey from teaching into agriculture
🐂 Managing cattle properties and making their first investments
🏡 Buying their first blocks of land and using them to generate income
🍒 Taking the leap into lychee farming with no previous experience
🚜 Rebuilding the orchard and growing Lush Lychees
🌏 Growing a premium product for domestic and export markets
🏪 Building a farm shop and creating an experience for customers
🍦 Value-adding through ice cream, preserves and lychee products
🎓 Krystal’s Nuffield Scholarship and lessons from travelling the world
💡 Finding opportunities to capture more value from existing farm assets
🤝 Using partnerships and innovation to develop new products, including lychee vodka and liqueur
🌱 Building a profitable family farm for the next generation

Find out more about Krystal and Lush Lychees

🌏 Website: Lush Lychees
📘 Facebook: Lush Lychees
📸 Instagram: @lushlychees
🔗 LinkedIn: Krystal Caton
🎓 Nuffield Scholar Profile: Krystal Caton – Nuffield Australia

Resources Mentioned

🎓 Nuffield Australia
🌏https://www.farmownersacademy.com/

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This season of A Place to Call Home is proudly brought to you by

Rabobank Australia.

A big thank you to Rabobank Australia for supporting the podcast and helping us continue sharing the stories of people building their future in Australian agriculture.