YORK grower Rhys Turton has urged growers to vote for experience in this year’s CBH Member Director elections.
With a farming career spanning more than 25 years and extensive boardroom experience, Mr Turton believes growers would be leaving the District 3 position on the CBH board in capable hands if their votes led to his election.
Mr Turton runs a mixed cropping and sheep enterprise on his York property, which has been in the family for more than 50 years.
He also has close ties to the Koorda community, having run a rotational cropping property formerly owned by the Turton family for close to 20 years.
Mr Turton goes into the election with significant leadership experience and a firm belief in the CBH Group’s co-operative structure.
“I’ve certainly got a strong affinity with co-ops and I feel that CBH should remain a strong grower owned and controlled co-operative,” Mr Turton said.
“The co-op is an important and integral part of every grain growers’ business in this State and I have had quite a bit of board experience in Australia and overseas – a degree of that has been with agricultural co-operatives.
“I feel I am well experienced to do the job and I have the passion for the organisation as well.”
Mr Turton’s experience includes his election as is a director on the GrainGrowers Limited board, the WAFarmers board and the Council of Grain Grower Organisations board.
He is also a former director of the United Farmers Co-operative which was acquired by New Zealand fertiliser company Ravensdown – an organisation on which he was also a board member.
Mr Turton said this local and international experience had broadened his knowledge of large-scale business operations and the co-operative structure, while giving him plenty of fresh ideas that had the potential to improve CBH.
“These positions have given me a thorough understanding of governance, and the practicality of how big businesses work,” Mr Turton said.
“Having that experience on the larger boards would flow through to what I could bring to CBH and I know how to co-operatively and collaboratively make sure you’re working in the best interest of the members.”
If elected as a CBH member director, Mr Turton said his priority would be ensuring storage and handling capabilities within the co-operative were keeping up with WA’s increasing grain production levels.
He said it was imperative that the co-operative’s Network Strategy was rolled out quickly and efficiently to ensure all growers were sufficiently serviced.
“We have just noticed in the past few years that some bins have been caught a little bit short with the bigger and quicker harvests, so I think it’s a priority to make sure that this core part of the business is working well and servicing the needs of growers at that level,” Mr Turton said.
“As we undergo the bin rationalisation program we have to ensure that the remaining bins are capable of coping with the extra quantities and the speed at which that harvest comes in at.”
In addition, the York grower said he would focus exploring ways to add value to the co-operative’s 4200 members through its marketing division.
He said CBH needed to ensure it had a deep understanding of its customers’ needs in existing and potential markets.
“I think just ensuring that CBH is actually particularly strong in marketing grain rather than just trading or selling it, I think that’s quite important,” Mr Turton said.
On top of this he will commit to investigating more flexible ways to return rebates to members and keep a close eye on the co-operative’s overseas investments.
“Are these investments delivering the returns growers would expect from both a demand for WA grain perspective and a financial return perspective?” Mr Turton asked.
“Are they the right assets to keep our money in given that in Indonesia alone, 25 new flour mills have been constructed since deregulation in the year 2000?”
For Mr Turton, the outlook was bright for WA’s biggest grain exporter with plenty of opportunity for growth on the horizon that could improve CBH and the communities it services.
“It’s a strong organisation, it’s well-resourced and I think it should be looking at opportunities on behalf of members and perhaps some of those opportunities are at a farm level and some of those are community advantageous projects,” Mr Turton said.
“So investing in high-speed internet, improved regional connectivity or similar activities that would improve farm production at the farm level are great examples of your co-operative working for you.”
He said he hoped his experience would add significant value to the board, giving it an increased capability to ensure the co-operative prospers for future generations.
“I’m running a campaign on experience – experience as a grain grower, experience as a board member on large agricultural and commodity based boards and experience understanding how the CBH system works at a local level and at a corporate level.”
Mr Turton is one of four growers nominated for the 2018 CBH Group Grower Members Director Elections in District 3, seeking election in the seat held by Pingelly farmer John Hassell who has not renominated.
