Hoberg: There is a website, it's www.dakota-prairie.com. We have about 26 different organic flours. We are a specialty mill or a roller mill, so we have a nice, finer grind than in most mills. We do a lot of white whole wheat flours, and we do different ones depending on the textures the consumers want. We do specialty products for people with special conditions like gluten tolerance, diabetes, etc., so we have numerous specialty products. We have a whole grain that you use for sprouting, and then we also do a lot of fat grains.
Steve: Is the company certified organic?
Hoberg: Yes, we're certified organic and we're certified kosher. We're certified both U.S. and internationally organic. Our customer base is in the U.S. and also overseas.
Steve: Where would customers go if they wanted to buy your product?
Hoberg: North Dakota. We ship from North Dakota to bakeries, and we have one distributor on the East Coast. It's pretty much all direct shipments across the country.
Steve: So do you feel the rules on organics are strong enough? Do you think they should be weaker or stronger?
Hoberg: I think they need to be as strong as possible, because when people buy organic wheat flour, number one, they are expecting it to be organic, with no chemicals or anything else, and number two, they're expecting it to be just wheat, with no barley with it. That has nothing to do with being organic, but there are people who are allergic to barley, so the reason people buy organics a lot is that they're allergic to different things. So they don't want to have gluten, and if they buy spelt, they're looking at it because they don't want gluten in it. They buy whole wheat organic. Some people are buying it because they don't want barley in it. If you go to a grocery store and buy white flour, there's barley in it. So there are a lot of different reasons for people buying organics, and one of them is just the environmental impact. There are no chemicals running off into rivers, but beyond that there's a long list of reasons why people want to buy organics.
Steve: I really appreciate your time.
Hoberg: Thank you.