Mr McMahon, who runs C and D Marketing, has been importing the herbicide glyphosate from Malaysia in recent months and delivering it direct to farmer clients who are unhappy at the high price for that product.

He said he planned to start importing urea in one tonne bulker bags as early as this month from the Ukraine or Russia.

Mr McMahon, whose company imports a wide range of products and equipment, said he was acting in response to frequent requests from farmers, including some as far away as Queensland and South Australia, as to whether the could help them obtain fertilsier and herbicide more cheaply.

“I have had numerous meetings with farmers and I get calls every day,” he said.

Mr McMahon said he had been keeping his plans “under the radar” but had decided to go public following reports the South Australian group, Direct Farm Inputs, was claiming its plans to import fertiliser directly had forced Incitec Pivot to cut its prices for MAP and DAP sharply - a claim IPL has denied.

“There’s no doubt farmers feel - whether it is a fact or not - that someone is having a lend of them pricewise,” Mr McMahon said

“Every farmer I have spoken to is concerned with the monopoly that the major fertiliser companies hold.”

Mr McMahon said he had been able to deliver glyphosate to farms for $7 to $8 a litre, against prices of up to $12 per litre he believed farmers were paying for product from conventional sources.

He said that because of his low overheads he expected to able to continue to offer farmers lower prices than mainstream competitors despite the sharp drop in fertiliser prices in the past few weeks.

“We do not need to make big margins because we will not warehouse or market it.

“We buy direct from the factories in bulk and deliver straight to the farm in the same container it left the factory in.

“My selling price for urea will be less than $600 a tonne.”