Farm Credit of the Virginias' Returns $30 Million to Customer-owners
Farm Credit of the Virginias, a cooperative lending institution serving Virginia, West Virginia, and western Maryland, will return $30 million to its customers this month through their annual patronage program.
Due to Farm Credit of the Virginias’ cooperative framework, the association returns a portion of its profits back to customer-owners on an annual basis. During 2022, increased input costs, supply chain disruptions and rising interest rates made it difficult for their customer-owners to carry out their goals for the year. Nevertheless, Farm Credit of the Virginia’s financial position remained strong and their Board of Directors elected to return 70% of their net profits to their customer-owners, with the hope that this patronage distribution would allow their customer-owners to feel more confident in navigating the economic headwinds currently impacting the agricultural industry and our rural communities.
The patronage program effectively lowers the cost of borrowing from Farm Credit of the Virginias. This year’s $30 million distribution equates to having an interest free loan for three and a half months and represents approximately 30% of the interest accrued on loans.
Farm Credit of the Virginias CEO, Brad Cornelius, said, “As always, we’re pleased to be able to share our profits with our customer-owners through our annual patronage refund.” Cornelius continued, “We’re committed to being here for our customer-owners when they need us, and as they need us. Our patronage return is our way of saying we’re here and we’re going to keep working to make sure that we’re always here, through good times and bad. Patronage is just one of the many benefits of doing business with a customer-owned cooperative.”
About Farm Credit of the Virginias
Farm Credit of the Virginias provides over $2 billion dollars in financing to more than 12,000 farmers, agribusinesses and rural homeowners throughout Virginia, West Virginia and western Maryland. Farm Credit is a cooperative capitalized largely through investments made by farmers, ranchers and the rural homeowners and businesses that borrow from them. In fact, as part of a nationwide network they are the largest single provider of agricultural credit in the United States and have been for over 100 years. Farm Credit helps maintain and improve the quality of life in rural America and on the farm through its constant commitment to competitive lending, expert financial services and for facilitating and sharing knowledge and resources through the Farm Credit Knowledge Center. For more information, visit www.FarmCreditofVirginias.com.