"I think Newcastle is creating records, with the biggest export of grains in the port's history," said Mr Carter, the co-CEO of the Carrington-based Newcastle Agri Terminal.

"We're hoping to have done 650,000 tonnes by the end of this week, and that's so far this season, since November.

"We've got bookings for over a million tonnes for the season [to October]."

Jock Carter estimated the 650,000 tonnes of grain was worth about $227 million.

At the nearby GrainCorp facility, the volume of grain exports handled this season is nearing one million tonnes.

A spokesperson for GrainCorp said that mark was expected to be reached at the Carrington terminal on May 17. As of Wednesday, 925,000 tonnes of grain, including wheat, barley and chickpeas, had been loaded.

A Port of Newcastle spokesman said indicators pointed to "bumper wheat export volumes" in 2021.

"The port exported 815,956 tonnes of wheat in the first three months of 2021," the spokesman said. "This compares with just over 600,000 tonnes of wheat exported in the same period during the record-breaking 2017 year, when more than 1.8 million tonnes was shipped [for the calendar year].

"Port of Newcastle expects that about 60 ships full of wheat will leave the port carrying the 2020 winter harvest over the 12 months to October 2021."

Those figures are a country mile away from the lean volumes of the previous drought-affected years.

According to the Port of Newcastle, only about 41,000 tonnes of wheat were exported in 2019. More wheat was brought into the port, being shipped from Western Australia and South Australia for domestic use, than was going out. About 314,000 tonnes of wheat was shipped into Newcastle that year.

"Talk about feast and famine," said Mr Carter.

"When you look at the last three grain seasons, where Newcastle did next to no exports at all, to this record, it's an astounding turnaround."

For Newcastle's two grain terminals, the busy times will keep on flowing, with both facilities heavily booked until the end of the season.

"Between the two terminals, you're looking at a long-term average of a million to 1.2 million tonnes a year, and we've already exported that much [this season], and we're only at April," said Mr Carter.

According to the February edition of the federal Agriculture Department's Australian Crop Report, wheat production is estimated to be a record high 13.1 million tonnes in this season.

The area planted to wheat is estimated to have increased to 3.8 million hectares, double the figures for 2019-20.

As further evidence that new export records were likely to be set in the port, GrainCorp said during the last big harvest in 2016-17, the company exported 1.2 million tonnes through its Carrington terminal.

This year, based on the company's current booked capacity, GrainCorp expected to export up to 1.9 million tonnes.

Newcastle Agri Terminal is handling mostly wheat, along with small volumes of sorghum, which is packed into containers and sent by rail to Sydney.

"If the container port ever does get built in Newcastle, that would be shipped from here," Mr Carter said, adding it would save freight costs for many growers in western NSW, who presently sent their produce to Sydney or Brisbane. "It would be a very big opportunity."

The wheat being loaded into Hupeh is bound for New Zealand.

But Mr Carter said the markets were widespread, from the Middle East, Indonesia, Japan and Malaysia to durum wheat being shipped to Italy for pasta production.

In the midst of all this activity, the port had to contend with the impact of heavy rain.

"The March heavy rainfall across Eastern Australia affected train and truck movements between growing and storage areas and the port for a few days," the Port of Newcastle spokesman said.

"The persistent rain also disrupted ship loading operations at the export terminals at times, due to the need to keep the wheat dry."

The port operations returned to normal as quickly as possible, the spokesman added.

But the return of good rain last year has also helped put so much grain in the Carrington silos, and that grin on Jock Carter's face.

Of the months ahead, he said, "It's looking very promising."

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