EYRE Peninsula cropper Mark Modra, Greenpatch, is in favour of the establishment of a grower-owned port and would support a levy to fund it.
"The idea of increasing competition on the Eyre Peninsula is good, particularly the 'grower-owned' aspect, as there would be less financial forces in play," he said.
But he said other grower responses had been a "mixed bag".
"Everyone recognises that we need competition over here, but the problem is that past attempts have not succeeded," he said.
Our population is just not big enough or competitive enough to lure international interest and we can't compete against the bigger companies."
Mr Modra said finding an alternative buyer for their grain was very important, however, as they were more disadvantaged compared to growers in the east of the state.
"The freight differential is a lot different, they can also send their grain to the east and they have a lot more domestic use possibilities," he said.
"Plus, we used to be able to just cart to our local silo and the grain would get trained to Port Lincoln. Whereas now, people are having to travel a lot further to silos because of different segregations. It has meant either using bigger trucks or more of them.
"However, Viterra have run the system better this year than previously; there was better communication at the sites and truck turnaround."
Cleve cropper Grantley Siviour is one grower dubious about the port proposal.
"I can't see a mining venture starting up here on the EP for a long time, let alone developing a port, as there are no economics in it for them, particularly with the current price of iron ore," he said.