Have you ever run a business where the customer is not king? If so, how successful can that business be?
We must all agree that businesses rely on customers. If the business doesn’t meet customer expectations, what happens to that business? We surely all know the answer.
Say you are in the wheat business. You are asked by not one but many of your faithful customers to produce a variety of wheat they wish to purchase. In fact, they would not only purchase large quantities of that wheat. They would pay a premium for the product.
What would happen to your business if you had been touting the fact that you are the most reliable, trustworthy supplier in the world and then you told customers that you cannot meet their request without giving them a good reason? All you can tell them is that we can’t produce critical mass. How do you think your faithful customer would respond?
If your answer is that the customer would source the product from some other supplier, you are correct. They have done just that. Such has been the case with buyers from Taiwan, Mexico, Nigeria, and the list goes on and on.
Why has this happened? The short answer is the wheat industry has dropped the ball. By wheat industry I include any business that produces, handles, trades in or uses wheat as an ingredient or adds an ingredient to wheat such as sweeteners. Our own government has also been complacent. The success of hard white winter wheat was doomed from the start.
To develop a successful sales program, you must first start with a customer base. Then you produce the product. In the case of wheat, you must have the entire wheat industry on board. This did not take place. Farmers were encouraged to produce bushels without knowing who the customers might be. The result was that many could not market their product and suffered large losses. Years went by until another attempt for success was made.
The previous lesson from years past was not learned with the next attempt at success. Once again, farmers were encouraged to produce product by compensating them to do so. Although customers were on the horizon, this attempt also fell short, primarily because infrastructure and grain handlers were not on board. Since this failed attempt, farmers are being encouraged not to grow hard white wheat as they are suffering reduced prices and even financial penalties.
Although hard white winter wheat has suffered setbacks, its potential is still there as a predominant whole grain product. Whole grain products have taken on a new, different life as will hard white wheat.
Once the public becomes more educated about those potential health advantages, the entire wheat industry will no doubt respond in a more positive way.
Ron Suppes is a farmer from Dighton, Kansas.
