Among the nectarines you buy at your supermarket this summer are those that have probably been brought to you by black market labour. Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker investigate the rotten truth behind our fruit.

As our car hurtles up the Murray Valley Highway, past small towns and empty pubs, the mood is tense. In the back seat is Mohammad Rowi, a quietly spoken Malaysian who has been ordered by the immigration department to leave Australia by midnight.

He is critical to today’s mission: to get a foot in the door of the underworld of illegal workers and human exploitation in Australia’s horticulture sector.

These people - misled, indebted and exploited - are picking some of the fruit that you and your family will buy from Coles, Woolworths and Costco and eat this summer.

Rowi is staring quietly out the car window. The sun is still rising, casting a gentle light over twisted gum trees and the seemingly endless expanse of farmland.

Waiting for him in Malaysia is a daughter he has never met. She was born after Rowi said goodbye to his wife and first child to work illegally on a network of farms in Victoria’s food bowl.

He was part of a sizeable workforce of undocumented and underpaid workers. Some are paid as little as a few dollars an hour - some even end up owing money - to work on Australian farms.