IF PULLABOOKA, west of Grenfell, NSW, farmer Dan Cooper gets elected to the Grain Growers Association (GGA) board at next week’s annual general meeting, it will be a great fillip for the association’s youth leadership program.
In recent years Mr Cooper has participated in both GGA’s Innovation Generation and Future Grains Industry Leaders programs.
Now he has decided to take the skills learnt from these programs and throw his hat in the ring for a position on the board as a central zone director.
Mr Cooper will contest the position with incumbent Steve Hargreaves, who was elected last year due to a casual vacancy, and as such, must face election from the members this year.
The major platform for Mr Cooper’s run at the board is to get a fresh face and the views of a new generation onto the GGA executive.
“The main reason for me running is to give the board a fresh look from the younger generation’s perspective.”
He hopes to see GGA evolve into a similar organisation to America’s US Wheat Associates, playing a role in advocacy and promotions, as well as developing trade links with potential wheat-buying nations.
GGA’s recent evolution, including the purchase of BRI and the merger with Kondinin Group were a step in the right direction, he said.
“It is a good idea, it will just take some time to get them settled down.”
He said the company needed to find its niche, rather than try and reach right across the grains sector.
“I think filling some of those old functions of the single desk are required, certainly the promotions work and some of the research and development, especially in terms of classification.”
Mr Cooper said Australia’s post-production service to international customers had slipped since deregulation.
“We are not servicing our customers as well as we could be, on a recent trip to south-east Asia I met with quite a few millers, and the major feedback was that there needed to be some sort of representation.
“There’s certainly a void there, a lot of the millers we met with are looking to see some sort of representation, and there also needs to be training how to best use our wheat.”
He said GGA could also play a crucial role in relaying customer requirements to farmers, so they were growing the varieties that were wanted by the market.
“There is plenty there that GGA can do, and I think we can do it at a fraction of the cost of US Wheat Associates.”
He said this should be made even easier by focusing solely on Asia with promotion.
“We need to concentrate on Asia, that is going to be our key market, and I believe it makes sense to focus on markets that are both high value and that we have a freight advantage into.”
Regarding changes to the GGA structure, Mr Cooper said he supported the abolition of the regional committees, but said the timing could be better.
He said low participation rates were evidence the regional committee structure had passed its use-by date.
“Looking at it, there are only two regions that have a full complement of members, so it is clear that there is limited contribution from members via the regional committees.”
Mr Cooper said he was firmly behind the appointment of independent directors.
“There really is the need for those different skill sets.”
He said while the GGA constitution required a majority of directors and the chairman to be farmers there was little chance of growers losing control of the organisation, as has been claimed by those against appointing independent directors.
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