CHS will return $120 million to its owners in the next year, the lowest level of profit-sharing the nation’s largest agricultural cooperative has announced since 2021.
In recent previous years, the Inver Grove Heights-based agribusiness paid out record sums of cash patronage and equity redemption. It passed out $600 million through the past year and $730 million in 2024 as a result of strong crop prices.
Now with commodity prices bottoming out and profits strained as a result, there is much less to share.
For the first nine months of the fiscal year that ended in August, CHS profits dropped by more than half to $401 million. Revenue fell 10% to $26.8 billion compared to the same period last year.
The company has also drawn down its cash this year and will put 35% of certain earnings into reserves, up from 10% tucked away last year.
Cash patronage is essentially a dividend paid to owners based on their business with CHS. Equity redemption cashes in outstanding stock cooperative members held.
CHS Board Chair Dan Schurr said in a statement CHS remains committed to “sharing the financial strength” it generates after the board approved the profit-sharing plan for fiscal year 2026 on Tuesday.
“We are focused on meeting the needs of our owners, customers and communities amid the volatile cycles inherent in agriculture,” Schurr’s statement read, “while investing in capabilities and efficiency that will drive future growth as we work to fulfill our purpose of creating connections to empower agriculture.”
