Cooperatives: Meeting People's Needs

North Dakota cooperatives began in response to people's needs. Successful cooperatives continue to meet the needs of their members. Today, cooperatives are taking the lead in revitalizing North Dakota through economic development and community services. Cooperatives add value to the lives of all North Dakotans.

About Cooperatives

• A cooperative business belongs to the people who use it--people who have organized to provide themselves with goods and services.

• Member owners share in the control of their cooperative--they meet regularly, review detailed reports and elect directors from among themselves.

• The directors hire management to serve the members' interests.

• Members invest shares in the business. All net savings are returned to co-op members.

National Cooperatives

• Cooperatives come in all sizes--from small buying clubs to businesses included in the Fortune 500--Welch's, Land O'Lakes, Ocean Spray, Sunkist, Publix Supermarkets, ACE Hardware, Nationwide Insurance and the Associated Press.

National Statistics

• More than 50 million Americans are served by insurance companies owned by or affiliated with cooperatives.

• Cooperative health maintenance organizations (HMOs) provide health care services to nearly 1.4 million American families.

Service Cooperatives

• In 1996 electric cooperatives had annual retail sales of $200 million and paid $37 million in state taxes.

• Telecommunication cooperatives operate with 100% digital switching and fiber optics connect every rural telephone line in the state.

• With more than 43,000 members, North Dakota Farmers Union is the largest general farm organization in North Dakota.

• Cenex Harvest States is now a producer-to-market cooperative system owned by farmers, ranchers and their local cooperatives, with 5,000 employees serving member cooperatives and producers in 18 states.

• Land O'Lakes processes more than 12 billion pounds of milk annually at its dairy plants across the country.

Value-Added Products

• American Crystal Sugar Company and Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative market their sugar together through United Sugars Corporation. UBC is a cooperative that ranks first nationally in terms of beet sugar sales.

• Annual sales for Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative in 1997 were $139 million.

• In North Dakota, ag processing co-ops process many different products: bison, sugar, carrots, cheese, fish, potatoes, wheat, pasta, hogs, corn sweetener, specialty oils and organically grown crops.

• Value-added cooperatives have built nearly $500 million in facilities since 1990 and producers have invested $216 million in equity into local economies.

• Since 1990, newly constructed value-added cooperatives account for more than 600 new jobs in North Dakota.

Financing Cooperatives

• Credit unions offer better rates and lower service fees because there's no profit motive. One-third of the state's population belongs to a credit union.

• Agricultural loans are one-fourth of all loans credit unions make in North Dakota.

• The St. Paul Bank for Cooperatives made its first loan to a North Dakota cooperative in 1933.

• The St. Paul Bank Fargo office loaned more than $1.26 billion in funds to 170 cooperative businesses in North Dakota in 1996.

• Farm Credit Services provides more than $1 billion in agricultural loans to over 10,000 North Dakota farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses and farmland owners.

• Four separate Farm Credit Services associations employ about 280 people in 26 North Dakota locations with an annual payroll of more than $10 million.