A ship carrying thousands of tonnes of grain harvested in the South West will set sail from Bristol Port later this month.
A whopping 64,000 tonnes of barley is being loaded onto a huge Panamax vessel - a ship able to fit through the Panama Canal - that's bound for Saudi Arabia.
The grain will be used as animal feed, according to Business Live.
The shipment is being exported from Bristol after the Bristol Port Company agreed a partnership with Openfield - a co-operative representing 4,000 UK farmers.
Jonathan Mordaunt, Bristol Port’s commercial director, said: “There has been a bumper harvest this year and the superb co-operation between our grain team and Openfield has lead to us having the busiest start to the grain season in the Port’s history."
Bristol Port currently handles up to 9,000 tonnes of grain a day - the equivalent to more than 300 trucks - and can tip the quantities in as little as five minutes.
The port says it is expecting to receive further shipments of grain after a huge wheat and barley harvest in Britain this season.
The global demand for massive shipments of grain can be accepted, according to the port, because the 42.7m-wide lock gate at Portbury – the largest of its kind in the UK – allows bigger ships to enter than any other UK dock.
The news comes just a week after Prime Minister Boris Johnson hinted that Bristol could be in the running to be a free port - also called free trade zones - where the tax rules of the country in which they are located don’t apply.
Mr Johnson said on a visit to Bristol that seeing the success of Bristol Port made him burst with pride and that there were “big opportunities” for the port around the world once Britain leaves the EU.
He added: “Bristol is the nearest port in the UK to important ports in the US like Jacksonville, and it’s going to benefit from being open to the world.”
The port is privately owned, covers an estate of more than 2,600 acres and provides employment for more than 7,600 people.
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