Minnesota's CHS returns $730M to co-op owners, second-highest ever

The nation's leading farmer-owner agribusiness will return $730 million in patronage and equity redemptions to farmers across rural America, CHS Inc. announced Tuesday.

The sizable return comes on the heels of last year's record-breaking $1 billion patronage, boosted by strong global grain and oil prices in 2022.

"No other business model has this deep connection with its owners and unrelenting focus on empowering our stakeholders and building communities," said Dan Schurr, chair of the CHS Board of Directors.

This year's return is the second-highest mark for the Inver Grove Heights-based cooperative. Farm incomes over the last two years have been lifted by the war in Ukraine. CHS also has benefited from the fulsome return to pre-pandemic demand for petroleum.

But forecasters say farm income could be flattening.

Last month, the Minneapolis Federal Reserve released summer survey results of farmland lenders across the Upper Midwest who said they've seen farmers respond to softening commodity prices by making fewer capital investments in equipment.

In 2022, CHS recorded $47.8 billion in revenues, spanning agronomy, grains, foods and energy sectors.