LAKE Eyre Basin beef producer Sharon Betts has joined the board of Australia’s longest running organic beef company, OBE Organic.
Ms Betts, who runs about 10,000 cattle with her family on Epsilon Station in Qld and Mungerannie on the Birdsville Track in SA, says she is proud to be a director on a company so serious about doing the best for producers.
“Our properties have always been virtually organic, but before OBE was founded, there was no opportunity to capture a premium,” she said. “OBE pioneered the organic opportunity for cattle producers, and my experience through the ups and downs of the past 20 years is their number one focus has always been to look after producers like us as best as they can.”
Ms Betts says the family has had a close association with OBE across the years as shareholders, but she was looking forward to working with such a good company and meeting customers from their rapidly growing markets in Australia, North America, Africa and the Middle East.
“We are having a good season. There is plenty of feed around here and cattle prices are good, so hopefully it stays like that,” she said.
The Betts family first gained organic certification in 2002.
Ms Betts says it is a natural fit, supplying certified organic grass-fed beef from their pastoral properties.
“We have been lucky it has been fairly easy for us and we recognised one day it would be popular with people looking for a clean, green product,” she said.
“Nowadays people are looking to feed their children organic products and there is still enormous growth potential.”
OBE Organic now has a gender balance, with Ms Betts joining Hong Kong-based Deirdre Lander and Qld pastoralists David Brook, Birdsville, and Peter Schmidt, Charleville.
Mr Brook said he was proud OBE’s board had gone from no women directors to 50 per cent female representation in the past three years.
“Men and women run cattle stations equally so it makes sense to have equal board representation,” he said. “More importantly, diversity is just good business because being open to insights from different perspectives helps us innovate and be more likely to identify opportunities and risks.”
Mr Brook says Ms Betts brings 40 years expertise across a range of business and community interests to the board.
“Sharon is well known for being among the top graziers in the region and will do a wonderful job representing the interests of cattle producers,” he said.
“She has been to international markets with our sales team and she has a keen interest in marketing the provenance and origins of our product to the world.”
OBE Organics was established by a group of family farmers 20 years ago and has grown to weekly kills of about 335 head.
June figures showed 6.5 million hectares of certified organic land (an area about the same size as Tas) was owned by SA, Qld and NSW producers who mainly supply to OBE Organic.
