CLYDE, N.D. – In a well-rehearsed orchestra of movements, Clarence Sauer slides a brown bag onto a spout that spews out 25 kilograms of flax seed.
Sauer then heaves the parcel of flax onto a conveyer belt and reaches for another bag to fill.
At the end of the conveyor, the bags are stacked into a large metal container mounted on the back of a semi truck. Once filled, the 800-bushel container will be sealed and dispatched to a customer in Germany.
The company that Sauer works for, Northern Organic, expects to ship at least 1,000 of these sealed containers overseas this year. The elevator in this northern North Dakota community is one of two the company uses for export business.
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At a town 35 kilometres to the east, company owners Will and Sue Schill scramble to keep pace with the overseas demand for organically grown crops.
They talk about having to turn buyers away because of overwhelming demand. One of the contracts they rejected this fall was for 14,000 bushels of organic wheat.
“We have to get a few things running more smoothly before we grow too much more,” said Sue, seated in an office overflowing with paperwork. “We’re growing too fast as it is.”
The Schills began growing organic crops in the late 1980s. In one bold move, they switched all their farmland to organic production, a decision they termed “going cold turkey.”
“There’s sort of a spiritual dimension to it, where you think it’s the right thing to do,” Sue said.
But they found that markets for their grains were risky. Buyers sometimes defaulted on payments.
Hoping to end some of the uncertainty, the Schills bought an elevator at Langdon, N.D., two years ago. The metal-clad structure, built in 1928, had been sitting idle for five years.
The elevator gave them a place to clean, blend and load organically grown crops for export to Europe and Asia. It also became the headquarters for their business.
Sue said the plant cost them less than the price of a new two-wheel-drive tractor.
The growth of their business soon prompted them to rent their farmland to Will’s brother, Dennis Schill. It also led to a decision last year to buy the 250,000 bushel elevator at Clyde.
“I just kind of go with a sense of fate about what I’m doing,” said Will, describing his reaction to rapid growth of the business.
“If it’s supposed to happen, it’ll happen.”
Northern Organic has exported wheat, durum, oats, canola, corn, barley, millet, buckwheat, lentils, field peas, flax and soybeans.
It draws product from a 1,000-kilometre radius, with most grains coming from North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and eastern Montana.
Some grains, mostly pulse crops, have also been bought from growers in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
International sales and the logistics of shipping overseas are handled by Specialty Export in Greenfield, Tennessee.
The Schills keep samples from each of their shipments, which are all identity preserved. If necessary, they can trace the grain in a shipment back to the farm of origin.
Now they are considering a plant in Saskatchewan, possibly in a wooden elevator no longer needed by one of the grain companies.
That presence, they said, would help them meet demand in years when crops in the northern states are hampered by disease or bad weather.
This year, for example, organically grown lentils were harder to find because of wet fall weather in parts of North Dakota.
The Schills said exporting organic grains to overseas markets is not without risks.
Buyers sometimes haggle about quality. And there are times when a shipment is rejected at its overseas destination.
“When you take a hit, you really take a hit,” Will said.
