Australia’s oldest organic beef marketing company, OBE Organic, has underlined its commitment to organic cattle producers with the appointment of Lake Eyre Basin organic cattle producer Sharon Betts to its Board.

Sharon Betts, who runs approximately 10,000 head of organic cattle at her family properties at “Epsilon” Queensland and “Mungerannie” SA, joins founding organic producer Directors David Brook from Birdsville and Peter Schmidt from Charleville, together with Hong Kong-based Deirdre Lander.

The appointment also takes OBE Organic’s Board to a 50% female representation, compared to the average 23.6% of Directors on ASX 200 companies1.

“OBE Organic was established 20 years ago to maximise value for organic cattle producers and I’m proud to join the Board of a company so serious about doing the best for producers,” Sharon Betts said.

“Our properties are so large they have always been virtually organic, but before OBE was founded there was no opportunity to capture this premium.

“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.”

OBE Organic Chair David Brook said Sharon Betts brings a wealth of experience to the Board.

“Sharon is well known for being among the top graziers in the region, she brings 40 years of expertise across a range of business and community interests, and she will do a wonderful job representing the interests of cattle producers,” he said.

“Sharon 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.

“I’m also very proud to have a board that has gone from 0% female three years ago to 50% today. Men and women run cattle stations equally so it makes sense to have equal representation on our Board. More importantly, to me 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.

OBE Organic celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, and has continued its tradition of innovation in recent years with programs to boost the productivity of its producers, including:
• Becoming the first corporate partner of Grazing BMP and attracting 83 attendees to OBE Organic Grazing BMP Forums in Roma, Charleville and Birdsville
• Partnering with Livestock Biosecurity Network to develop an organic biosecurity workbook
• Partnering with Workplace Health and Safety Queensland and WorkCover to deliver monthly
farm safety webinars and templates tailored for the beef industry
• Developing one of the Australian beef industry’s first formal sustainability programs, FLOURISH.

For more information, please contact:
Dalene Wray 0439 224 968 dwray@obeorganic.net

About OBE Organic. OBE Organic is Australia’s oldest organic beef marketing company, established by a group of family farmers. It sources certified organic cattle from Queensland, NSW, and South Australia and works to maximise the profitability of producers. OBE Organic’s safe and nutritious organic grassfed beef is sold to rapidly growing markets in Australia, Asia, North America and the Middle East.

Web www.obeorganic.net – Twitter @obeorganic – Instagram @obeorganic – Facebook facebook.com/obeorganic

1 AICD June 2016. http://www.companydirectors.com.au/director-resource-centre/governance-and-director- issues/board-diversity/statistics

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