Three hours' drive north of Adelaide, Sundrop Farms is officially open for business, growing tomatoes hydroponically in a place where crops have never been grown before.
It was an idea German-born, London-based Philipp Saumweber came up with more than seven years ago.
This month - october, his vision has become a reality.
At Sundrop, tomatoes are grown in greenhouses that, unlike most, do not rely on groundwater.
Instead, a pipeline draws water from the nearby Spencer Gulf.
And a field of mirrors harvests energy from the sun to desalinate the sea water.
University of Adelaide water and environmental policy professor Mike Young consulted on the project in its early days and says the growing process is unique.
Tomatoes grown at Sundrop Farms' Port Augusta greenhouses will be shipped to Coles supermarkets across the country.
Coles merchandise director Chris Nicholas says it provides a solution to the seasonal shortage of truss tomatoes.
Sundrop hopes to produce around 15,000 tonnes of tomatoes every year from its South Australian facility.
And there are also projects underway in the United States and Portugal.
But it took the company's in-house team more than five years of experimenting to get the growing balance right.
Now the model has been tried and tested, Professor Young says it could aid food production in some of the world's most arid regions -- where growing food had seemed impossible.
