Mr Riordan said all six ships were loaded with grain his company had bought from farmers and other traders.

He said the shipments — his first exports of grain in bulk — allowed him to “control his own destiny”. Mr Riordan said other grain exporters had contacted him to load vessels, but he decided to stick to his own grain at this stage.

“All vessels departed before time,” he said.

“There were no issues with demurrage (slow loading).”

Unlike GrainCorp’s network, Riordan Grain has no rail access to the dock it was leasing, so grain was taken to the dock by road. The company used 150 B-double trucks to load 23,000 tonnes of barley on to the first ship, the Tai Success, in February.

Mr Riordan is accumulating grain at port for the next two ships, due in June, but weather is affecting operations.

He said the recent rain in country areas had made it difficult to get grain out of bunkers.