The business has been set up by Karoonda farmer Leighten Huxtable and West Australian businessman John Hurley. Mr Huxtable is the former chairman of Direct Fertiliser, a grower-owned company that was sold to ABB in 2004.

While there have been substantial drops in fertiliser prices overseas, it has not yet flowed through to Australia, where there are large inventories of stock that were acquired at higher prices.

"I have been following the fertiliser industry closely and was absolutely alarmed at what was going on," Mr Huxtable said.

Concern over fertiliser prices led Mr Huxtable to investigate setting up the company last year.

Fertiliser is set to be available from the company's Port Adelaide warehouse from mid March onwards.

As well as straight DAP, MAP and urea, the company will also be supplying blended products.

Mr Huxtable said that due to the high costs involved with bringing in a boatload of fertiliser to Australia, growers wanted to secure supplies are required to pay up-front.

"The grower will pay money into a managed trust account, which is being mangaed by MGI in Adelaide, and a line of credit will be drawn against that," he said.

"The boat is due to arrive in Australia by the end of February, so fertiliser should be available by mid March."

The company is aiming to being in a boatload of between 35,000 to 38,000t of MAP and DAP, along with another boatload of 25,000t of urea.

"I'm a farmer and I want fertiliser to be available at a realistic price," Mr Huxtable said. "We definitely need more competition in the market.

*Details: www.directfarminputs.com.au.