{"id":723216,"date":"2026-06-08T14:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723216\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T14:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:42:14","slug":"steve-marafiote-awarded-order-of-australia-for-services-to-agriculture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723216\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Marafiote awarded Order of Australia for services to agriculture"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Sundrop Farms<\/p>\n


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Steve Marafiote, CEO of Sundrop Farms, has been awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) for services to Agriculture. The Order of Australia recognises Australians who have demonstrated outstanding service or exceptional achievement. It’s a good time for Steve, as Sundrop Farms last week also won Growers of the Year at Hort Connections 2026!<\/p>\n

Steve has been with Sundrop Farms since early 2015, and under his leadership, the Australia-based operation has become a major supplier of sustainable produce. Sundrop Farms uses the sun’s energy to produce freshwater for irrigation, and then turns it into electricity to power their greenhouse to heat and cool the crops. The system draws seawater from the nearby Spencer Gulf to provide water for their evaporative cooling systems and to feed the desalination plan.<\/p>\n

“This is the one of the proudest moments of my professional life and I thank my family for their support and encouragement over the years to pursue what I have always loved,” said Steve in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I was lucky enough to be born into an Italian migrant family in the 50’s who made the brave move to Australia to provide us with these opportunities. All four of my grandparents, worked in agriculture and demonstrated excellence, morals and dedication. They worked day and night and up to three jobs at a time to provide opportunities, they had field and greenhouse vegetable farms, so it was set deep in my DNA at that point.<\/p>\n

“My parents, Vincenzo (Jim) and Francesca then raised myself and my two brothers and sister to have work ethic and the highest non compromising morals. I could not be blessed with better parents and siblings in that respect. They also taught me to think of others whenever and wherever possible.<\/p>\n

“26 years ago I married my wife Bianca and she has always supported me with all the bumps and high moments in business. Most importantly we have had four great kids together, Daniella, Mia, Vincenzo (James) and Domenic. Our goal was to raise good humans first, but to pass on all the morals and ethics from our grandparents and parents. Our view as parents was that the greatest legacy we could provide our children is our good name that hopefully would open the door for opportunities for them.<\/p>\n

“I have also been blessed with great people in my professional career, so many great mentors and friends (too many to mention) that I would like to take a moment to thank now also.”<\/p>\n

For more information:
Sundrop Farms\"\"
sundropfarms.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n


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Frontpage photo:
\n \u00a9 Sundrop Farms
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\n Publication date:
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\n Mon 8 Jun 2026
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\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sundrop Farms Steve Marafiote,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-723216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}