On Monday night, the Mullaley business won the award for export of goods and services at the Hong Kong Australia Business Association Awards in Sydney. 

Last night, Lively Linseed struck success again, taking home the NSW Export Scholarship Award at the 2017 Premier’s NSW Export Awards.

Jacqui and Chris Donoghue are no strangers to awards, winning the Northern Inland Innovation of the Year Award in 2015 and the Excellence in Export award at the New England North West Regional Business Awards in 2016.

However, Mrs Donoghue said she didn’t expect to win this week.

“It was amazing,” she said.

“My friend took a photo of when I heard and she said, ‘That's priceless’.”

The Mullaley woman said the awards “definitely lifts the profile of the business” and will open doors.

“It adds a lot of credibility - particularly in Asia - to the business, particularly if the awards are either sponsored or organised by the NSW government,” Mrs Donoghue said.

“They really like the link to government.”

Lively Linseed was launched in 2007 and now exports linseed products around the world and has found a good market in Asia.

Mrs Donoghue said China is “pursuing Australia”.

“China is hungry for Australian products. They love our products,” she said.

“I think we should take advantage of that.

“Exporting does benefit the entire region and inject cash in from overseas rather than circulating the same dollar in Australia, you're bringing money in from oversea to increase the GDP.”

The local said she hoped that the success of Lively Linseed on the world stage would inspire others to pursue the export market.

“Particularly out of all of this, I wish just to try and encourage other producers to do exactly the same because statistics show that companies that export are more successful,” she said.

“I think it just demonstrates that living in a regional area is not a hindrance to being an exporter.

“You can pretty much do it from anywhere and anyone in the region interested in exporting their business, the possibility of exporting is not beyond your reach because of your physical location.”

“I think everyone was surprised there were 100 people at Mullaley and we don't even have a street number,” she said.

“They asked, "How do you do it put out there?". They just couldn't imagine how you get around it, especially with a food product, but I guess, where there's a will, there's a way.”

Now that the glitter of the awards ceremonies has passed, Mrs Donoghue is returning to reality.

“It's business as usual – still always chasing new export markets,” she said.

“We are getting inquiries from India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

“We've got some fairly strong leads, again through Austrade, and also the NSW Trading Commission to the UAE has introduced us to a supermarket in the UAE.

“It's a difficult market, particularly for a woman to negotiate contracts because of their culture.”

In the mean time, Mrs Donoghue will make her debut in the calendar world – Lively Linseed has been chosen to be part of National Australia Bank’s 2018 calendar. 

“I never thought I'd be a calendar girl,” she said.