Since taking back control of his finished product – Bellata-grown durum wheat – and discovering an Italian export market five years ago, Mr Cush's ambition has seen him develop one of the North West's shining examples of agri-food business.

Next week Mr Cush will be a guest speaker at a national agri-food industry conference in Melbourne, highlighting the success of his Bellata Gold pasta products. The week after, on October 4, he will officially open his new Tamworth mill, with the help of Federal member for Gwydir John Anderson.

Since starting milling operations five months ago, Mr Cush has taken 100 per cent control "from the country gate to the pasta plate". His pasta making company is based in Taminda, but will eventually join the mill on the south-west outskirts of Tamworth.

After years of watching the results of his hard work, money and time get mixed and shipped off to "who knows where" Mr Cush decided to regain control. He went to Italy, met a man named Mario, near Rome, who already knew about Bellata and its superior grains and found his own clients for his grain.

Then in 2003, a crate carrying his ready-to-export grain broke open at the port and a new opportunity arose.

Mr Cush said he decided to mill the spilt grain then give it to some pasta makers, on the proviso that they exhibit this new durum pasta at food shows.

The product was an early success winning several food awards and acclaim, and later the same year Bellata Gold pasta made its official debut in its home region at the Nosh on the Namoi, in Narrabri.

"We were still thinking that this was just a one-off thing, but we sold 900 packets of pasta in four hours," Mr Cush said.

"Then the phone calls started. People wanted to know where they could get more. We weren't really considering anything like this but the interest was huge so we started putting together a plan."

The start wasn't without its hiccups; an agreement with a mill fell through at the last minute and another had to be sourced at a much higher cost but three years on Mr Cush has ensured that won't happen again.

It's the "100 per cent traceability and unique northern NSW flavour" that Mr Cush believes gives his product – and other northern NSW agri-food products – the edge nationally and internationally. In two and a half years his business has grown from employing four employees to 20, and his product has already entered several Asian, US and European markets.

Federal, State, industry and council support has helped him get to where he is now, but Mr Cush believes it's a path that could be followed by fellow agri-businesses across northern NSW.

"A proper business plan is vital, having something to fall back on in case certain paths don't work out – like our original milling agreement – is a must and find your unique spot in the market place," he said.

"There are so many benefits to doing business here, that eventually they [investors and companies] are going to have to start moving inland."

He lists the cheap land, country work ethics and logistics – there's 250km between his grain and final pasta – as several great reasons to value add here in northern NSW.