Renewal time for SSGA members: ‘It’s nice to have a voice’

By Shane Frederick, SSGA Communications Manager

The Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) was born in February of 2019, and the first official members began joining the organization the following spring.

A year and a half later, members are starting to renew with SSGA, showing their belief in the young organization and seeing value in being part of it.

“I believe this organization can be successful,” said Roger Mortenson, vice president for specialty products at Grain Millers. “My feeling is there’s a tremendous amount of experience and a tremendous amount of driven people, people actively involved on the board, people who are really respected. I’m really happy to see how it’s going.”

For six years, Mortenson was on the board of the Midwest Shippers Association, the organization that merged with the Northern Food Grade Soybean Association to form SSGA. That included three years as board chair. Grain Millers was one of the first of SSGA’s members to renew in 2020.

“SSGA has a lot of really good things going on,” Mortenson said.

Over the last year, SSGA has taken on big tasks, leading the way on the getting Japan’s phytosanitary certificate requirement delayed and working on market access issues in India and China. It’s moving ahead on projects such as helping plan and organize this summer’s virtual Global Trade Exchange & Specialty Grains Conference, which will be held Aug. 24-27, and getting a U.S. identity-preserved (IP) brand created and established.

“We do a lot of work with other companies that are part of SSGA. What’s important to them is important to me. What affects their business affects our business,” said Jacob Noll, general manager at Friederichs Seed Inc., another company that quickly re-upped its SSGA membership. “The issues we’re working on are important; the phyto is huge right now.”

Shipping, especially out of rural America, solving other logistical puzzles and market development are also important issues SSGA is tackling, Mortenson said.

“It’s good how the organization is focused on our business,” he said.

Noll agreed, adding that SSGA is indeed a true alliance of businesses big and small that focus on the production, processing and shipping of specialty soya and grains around the world.

“There are issues we need to work together on as a group,” Noll said. “Even though we’re competitors, we’re working together for the greater good. There is strength in numbers this way. … SSGA is putting action teams together and putting the right people in the right places. Having who understand the politics of it has really helped. That’s vital – to get funding, to work on the issues.”

Even though SSGA is a national organization often working on a global scale, it’s not a monolith. Noll said he can call up SSGA leadership and staff and speak directly to them whenever he has questions or concerns.

“It’s a great feeling,” Noll said. “SSGA has a national presence, but there’s still a hometown feel to it.

“It’s nice to have a voice.”

For more information, check out the SSGA membership brochure or go to the membership page on the SSGA website.