Step forward Advanced Nutrients' Allfert options, which are poised to offer farmers greater choice when purchasing one of agriculture's most important input costs, that are believed to be worth more than $8 billion to Australia’s GDP.

The company's chief executive, Gary Murdoch-Brown, said the challenge was to assist producers by offering a range of attractively-priced products capable of boosting returns at a time when the Australian Bureau of Statistics had been detailing a healthy outlook for the country's cereal crops.

The announcement of a new fertiliser brand should trigger interest amongst those producers who closely followed scrutiny of the industry by a Senate Select Committee and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

"We have been listening to farmers who are calling for more freedom of choice," Mr Murdoch-Brown said.

All this means there will now be a third player in a market traditionally dominated by Incitec-Pivot and Hi Fert, able to offer "everything" from commodities, right through to speciality products, liquids and organic fertilisers.

Interestingly, one of Advanced Nutrients' largest customers in South Africa recently purchased a 50pc stake in the company to bring their commodity fertiliser expertise to Australia.

"So we've gone from being a niche specialist fertiliser company to offering commodity fertilisers which is a different ball game involving the purchase of large shiploads of product," Mr Murdock-Brown explained.

"The large public companies who dominate the market have enjoyed quite good profits.

"While that's not a bad thing, at times, in recent history, their profit margins have certainly exceeded what would be expected by frugal shareholders."

As a result, Advanced Nutrients says farmers can now "shop with their feet" and choose a company with strong Australian roots that claims to offer highly cost-competitive products.

"Our range is led by our internationally distributed Black Urea product which is said to enhance uptake by plants, plus offers producers the prospects of purchasing 25pc less fertiliser," Mr Murdoch-Brown said.

FOOTNOTE: The Fertiliser Industry Federation of Australia says around 50pc of the 5-6 million tonnes of fertiliser used in Australia each year is made in Australia, with the balance imported from a variety of overseas countries.