United States

Department of

Agriculture

Rural Business

and Cooperative

Programs

Research

Report 226

Joint Ventures and

Subsidiaries of

Agricultural

Cooperatives

U.S. Department of Agriculture
Abstract Agricultural cooperatives participate in joint ventures or establish subsidiaries to

accomplish various objectives, such as scale efficiency, to improve market access, or

to share capacity and expertise. The limited liability company (LLC) is the form of business organization most frequently used by cooperatives to establish joint ventures and

wholly-owned subsidiaries. Cooperatives participate in joint ventures with other cooperatives and non-cooperatives. Cooperative ventures are related to, or value-added

extensions of, their core businesses.

Joint Ventures and Subsidiaries of Agricultural Coopertives

Bruce J. Reynolds

Cooperative Programs

USDA Rural Development

RBS Research Report 226

June 2012

On the cover: The Co-Alliance Reynolds facility in White County, Indiana, which is

part of Co-Alliance LLP, a venture of five farmer cooperatives. Photo courtesy CoAlliance LLP
ii

Contents Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii

General Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Organizational Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Joint Venture Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Ownership Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Types of Cooperatives Establishing Ventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Categorizing Ventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Joint Venture Turnover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
iii

Highlights Many agricultural cooperatives establish joint ventures and wholly-owned subsidiaries

to obtain business advantages, such as sharing expertise, reducing costs, or improving market access. This study extends previous research by providing information

about partners in joint ventures and on the types of jointly owned businesses.

● A survey in 2010/11 identified 185 cooperatives that reported 317 business ventures

(209 joint ventures and 108 wholly-owned subsidiaries).

● Limited liability companies (LLCs) are used in 240 ventures.

● Cooperatives participated with other cooperatives exclusively in 92 joint ventures,

exclusively with non-cooperatives in 57, with both types of business partners in 26

such arrangements, and in 34 cases, the status (co-op or non-co-op) of partners

were not reported.

● Ownership is usually 50-50 in two-partner joint ventures.

● Most of the reported ventures involve farm supplies, grains, and oilseeds.

● Common types of joint ventures formed by agricultural cooperatives include processing, agronomy, fuel distribution, grain marketing, and purchasing associations.

● Joint ventures are sometimes organized for short-term purposes, such as preparing

for mergers.
Joint Ventures and Subsidiaries of

Agricultural Cooperatives

Bruce J. Reynolds

Cooperative Programs

USDA Rural Development

Agricultural cooperatives operate in highly competitive markets where success depends on achieving

efficient business operations. A strategy for achieving

competitive efficiency is to work with other cooperatives or firms in a joint venture company. Many cooperatives also increase their volume of business through

wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Since the mid-20th century, many high-value

product marketing associations, regional grain/farm

supply, and large dairy cooperatives have established

joint ventures and subsidiaries. Large cooperatives

participating in international trade have formed

import/distributorships in foreign countries to

improve market access (Reynolds). During many

decades, dairy cooperatives established joint ventures

for sharing resources and expertise (Frederick 1987).

Local grain and farm supply cooperatives traditionally worked together by organizing large regional

federations to vertically integrate input or commodity

processing operations, including access to export markets. In recent years, many of the federated regional

cooperatives have either closed or scaled back their

operations, although remaining ones have expanded

their operations to fill this gap. Some local cooperatives reported that the demise of Farmland Industries

in 2003 motivated them to organize joint ventures for

sourcing farm inputs and marketing grain.

Starting in the mid-1990s, the limited liability

company (LLC) combined the advantages of the single-tax status of partnerships with the limited liability

of corporations without being an incorporated entity.

An LLC has fewer regulatory constraints compared to

cooperative, corporate, or other forms of partnership

(Frederick 1998). In addition, an LLC accommodates

joint ventures between cooperatives and non-cooperative firms, and outside (nonmember) investors.

Widespread use of LLCs for ventures was identified in

a USDA survey of agricultural cooperatives in 2007.

These cooperatives reported involvement in 382 ventures, with 312 established as LLCs (Eversull).

The extent of joint venture activity between cooperatives and non-cooperatives had not been recently

studied in USDA research, prompting another survey

of venture participation in 2010 (Hulse). The 2010 survey missed cooperatives with year-end annual reports

in the 3rd quarter of the calendar year. However,

respondents that reported being in ventures in the

2007 survey and that were missed in the 2010 mailing

were contacted by telephone in 2011 to update their

information about involvement in ventures.

Previous USDA surveys of ventures by cooperatives had not requested the names of these businesses

and their specializations. The telephone survey in 2011

asked 2007 respondents to identify their ventures by

name, specific type of business, and composition of

partners between cooperatives and non-cooperatives.

The telephone survey was extended to include respondents from the 2010 survey that reported being in joint

ventures to identify the names and types of businesses

organized jointly. The telephone survey resulted in 185

cooperatives reporting the composition of partners

between cooperative and non-cooperative, the names,

and types of joint ventures. Results of the 2010 survey

by mail and the telephone survey in 2011 comprise a

distinctive “2010/11 survey” which is summarized in

this report.

General Results

In the 2010/11 survey, 185 agricultural cooperatives reported being in 317 ventures, with 108 (34 percent) being wholly-owned subsidiaries and 209 (66

percent) being joint ventures. Identifying trade names

1
of these joint ventures is important for determining an

accurate count of them. Several cooperatives participated in the same joint ventures. There were 382 ventures originally reported, with 48 duplicates reported

by more than 1 cooperative (these are netted out in

table 1).

Another group that was removed from the total

count of ventures is condominium grain storage service. This type of service is frequently organized as an

LLC with individual members of a cooperative. The

cooperative is like a managing partner who handles

the grain and, over time, transfers the ownership share

of the condominium storage from farmers who no

longer need it to those who do need it (Ginder). This

type of service is not comparable as a business entity

of cooperatives and non-cooperatives in owning and

operating joint ventures; hence, they were excluded

from the tally of 209 joint ventures. There were 17

reported condominium joint ventures (table 1).

Organizational Forms

The survey specified five different organizational

forms that can be used to establish ventures: LLC,

Corporation, LLP (limited liability partnership),

Partnership, and Other (see Glossary). Organizational

form was reported for 315 ventures (Fig. 1).

Cooperatives can be used as a form to establish a joint

venture of two or more cooperatives. However, this

option was not listed in the survey to avoid conflating

them with federated cooperatives that are a separate

type of business system from joint ventures. Only five

cooperatives reported the “other” category as the form

of their venture, but one of them is a purchasing association of cooperatives that was incorporated as a

cooperative. The LLC form was by far the most frequent method used to establish ventures, with 240

reported (Fig. 1). Two ventures were not identified as

to form of organization.

Joint Venture Partners

Most joint ventures reported in this survey

involve cooperatives partnering with other cooperatives. Out of 175 joint ventures, 92 included all cooperative partners (fig. 2). Many local cooperatives that

operate in adjacent membership regions will form joint

ventures as an alternative to merging, or as a preliminary stage to an eventual merger (Hudson). The survey found that joint ventures with more than three

partners were predominantly composed of cooperatives. Joint ventures for purchasing associations and

common marketing agents usually reported between 5

and 15 cooperative members.

Business relationships are common between

cooperatives and non-cooperatives, and, in some cases,

these lead to joint ventures. By contrast, two or three

cooperatives working together can merge their organizations as an alternative to forming a joint venture. A

merger alternative is not available in business relationships with non-cooperatives unless one organization

buys out the other.

The survey counted 57 joint ventures with a

cooperative partnering with non-cooperatives. In only

three of these joint ventures are there more than one

non-cooperative partner (fig. 2). Most of the 26 joint

ventures with both cooperatives and non-cooperatives

involve three or four partners, with the highest having

7 partners.

Six of the joint ventures by cooperatives have foreign companies as partners and are involved in international trade or processing outside the United States.

In addition, four ventures located outside the United

States were reported as being wholly owned subsidiaries of cooperatives. However, this survey did not

2

Table 1—Agricultural cooperative ownership of

ventures, 2010/11.

Cooperatives reporting 185

Ventures reported 382

Less:

Duplicates reported 48

Condominium grain storage 17

Net number of ventures 317

Wholly-owned subsidiaries 108

Total joint ventures 209

Limited 

Liability 

Company 

240 

Corporation 

54 

Limited 

Liability 

Partnership 

10 

Partnership 

6 Other

5 

Figure 1—Organizational form for separate

business ventures, 2010/11
have as high of a response rate from many of the major

cooperative exporters as it did from those in the local

grain and farm supply sectors. It is likely that cooperatives have many more joint ventures with foreign companies than identified in this survey, considering that

a 1991 survey of cooperative exporters found 18 that

had foreign partners (Reynolds).

Many of the joint ventures with both cooperative

and non-cooperative partners frequently own and

operate businesses such as unit-train grain loading,

feed mills, or fertilizer distribution. These ventures

benefit participants by specializing in a particular service while each partner operates independently. Some

joint ventures in the grain and farm supply sector

combine all business activities and services under one

trade name.

Ownership Shares

A cooperative’s share of ownership in a venture

is important for control or influence on the management of it. In this survey, joint ventures that involved

physical capital for processing, storage, or unit-train

loading reported five or fewer partners. For these

types of joint ventures, most respondents specified the

exact percentage of shares owned by all partners. In

contrast, share of ownership for purposes of control

are less crucial in joint ventures that coordinate such

services as purchasing and marketing. In these kinds

of joint ventures, there are typically numerous partners and start-up capitalization is relatively low.

Ownership shares are usually equal for all partners or

may vary slightly over time, based on volume of use

by each partner.

Figure 3 shows the ownership share of cooperatives in 253 joint ventures. Many of the 107 cooperatives reporting more than 49 percent ownership on the

survey subsequently reported that they held exactly a

50-percent share. Note that duplicate joint ventures are

not removed from these data because the point of reference is on individual cooperatives that participate in

joint ventures.

Types of Cooperatives Establishing

Ventures

The number of joint ventures and wholly-owned

subsidiaries with ownership by different types of

cooperatives are reported in table 2. Duplicate joint

ventures and condominium storage ventures are

included. As in 2007, most of the cooperatives participating in ventures are in the farm supply and grain

industries.

Categorizing Ventures

Joint ventures can be categorized based on the

business purposes they are organized to accomplish. A

telephone survey was used to identify joint ventures

by trade name and business specialization but the

same information was not collected for wholly owned

subsidiary ventures. Different types of cooperatives, as

reported in table 3 and presented in fig. 4, establish

joint ventures that either parallel or extend the business activities that are characteristic of their particular

industry.

3

Other 

cooperatives 

92 

Noncooperatives 

57 

Both 

26

Figure 2—Composition of joint venture partners

with cooperatives, 2010/11

1 to 20%

 82

cooperatives

21-49%

64 

cooperatives 

More than 49% 

107 

cooperatives 

Figure 3—Percentage share of ownership by

cooperatives in joint ventures, 2010/11
There are 30 agricultural processing and packing

joint ventures identified in the survey, not including

bio-energy. Dairy processing accounted for 16 of these

joint ventures. Five joint ventures do fruit packing and

four process grains and oilseeds. One cooperative is

involved in three egg-packing joint ventures; another

has a textile manufacturing venture with foreign partners, and one cooperative reported having a grass seed

processing joint venture.

Farm supply cooperatives are often involved in

joint ventures in their region to improve services for

members and in some cases to serve nonmembers.

Cooperatives have actively combined their agronomy

operations with other cooperatives and non-cooperatives, reporting 29 such joint ventures. A joint venture

is categorized as “agronomy” if its activities extend

beyond coordinated purchasing that typically involves

shared operations for shipping, storage, and delivery.

There are 10 joint ventures exclusively involved with

fertilizer and 2 each that specialize in either seed or

chemicals, while 15 of them have combined fertilizer

and agricultural chemical businesses.

Fuel distribution was organized in 21 joint ventures. Four of these joint ventures specialized in retailing propane. Most of the other 17 joint ventures are

involved in purchase, storage, and distribution of

petroleum and diesel fuel. Three cooperatives reported

having wholly-owned subsidiaries for propane that

had originally been organized as joint ventures with

rural electric cooperatives.

Feed mills are a business where local cooperatives have sustained their competitiveness by combining either their ownership in a mill or in coordinating

operations from multiple locations. The survey identi4

Table 3—Joint ventures by type of business

operation, 2010/11.

Processing 30

Agronomy 29

Fuel distribution 21

Feed mills 21

Marketing agent 21

Grain terminal 19

Farm supply purchasing* 17

Ethanol & biodiesel 16

Business combinations 6

Other 29

Total 209

* Purchasing agent for multiple types of farm supplies.

Table 2—Participation in ventures by type of cooperatives, 2010/11.

Cooperatives Joint Wholly-owned

reporting Ventures** Ventures

Farm Supplies 70 135 41

Grains & oilseeds 71 104 13

Dairy 14 16 26

Fruits & vegetables 9 13 7

Livestock 516

Other* 16 11 15

Total 185 274 108

* Includes cooperatives in nuts, cotton, tobacco, sugar, dry beans, fish, and services.

**Includes duplicate joint ventures and condo storage ventures.

Marketing agent

21 

Agronomy

29

Fuel distribution 

21 

Feed mills

21

Grain terminals

19 

Supplies 

purchasing

17 

Bioenergy

16 

Business 

combinations

6 

Other

29

Processing

30

Figure 4—Joint ventures by type of

business operation
fied 21 feed mill joint ventures. It is important to note

that a large regional cooperative is a partner with local

cooperatives in 10 of these ventures.

A marketing agent joint venture is often referred

to as a marketing agent in-common. This type of venture provides a means for cooperatives to combine

their member products into larger lots for marketing.

Of the 21 reported marketing agent joint ventures, 18

of them involved grains and feed products, with 1

each for marketing eggs, dairy products, and fruit.

Unit-train grain loading terminal elevators are

another business that benefits from having partners in

multiple locations. The survey identified 19 grain terminal joint ventures, of which 8 involved cooperatives

partnering with non-cooperatives. One of these

involved two partners with equal ownership in a port

elevator.

Farm supply purchasing joint ventures are similar to common-agent marketing businesses with the

difference being that the former are buyers for member

inputs while the latter manage sales for member products. Both types of businesses do not involve a large

investment in plant and equipment. Therefore, they

have low overhead costs. Farm supply purchasing

must operate with a relatively high volume of purchases in order to have direct dealings with manufacturers. For this reason, of the 17 joint ventures identified in the survey, all have more than 5 partners and 1

has over 20 partners.

The survey identified 16 joint ventures involved

with bioenergy, however, their involvement as both

owner and supplier of corn and oilseeds varied. A few

cooperatives own equity in ethanol joint ventures but

indicated that they do not regularly deliver grain to

the plants. Four of the bioenergy joint ventures are

biodiesel producers.

Six joint ventures involve partners with ownership in entities that combine all grain marketing and

farm supply services under one trade name. Four of

these ventures include cooperatives partnering with

one non-cooperative that represent different multinational agribusiness companies. When operating with

non-cooperatives under a new trade name, cooperative

identity may be diminished and lost for future generations of farmers. Two of these business-combination

joint ventures exclusively have cooperatives as partners.

The “Other” category includes two to four joint

ventures in each of such business activities as consulting, equipment leasing, lending, safety and regulatory

compliance, transportation, laboratory testing,

research, livestock breeding and management services

for convenience stores.

Joint Venture Turnover

Turnover in joint ventures is defined in this

report as actions that change cooperatives’ participation in joint ventures within a time period. One type of

turnover involves cooperatives forming and dissolving

joint ventures. A different type of turnover involves

cooperatives entering into, or exiting from, joint ventures.

Comparisons between the surveys of 2007 and

2010/11 indicate substantial turnover in joint ventures.

There were 134 cooperatives that reported being in

joint ventures in both 2007 and 2010/11; 61 of them

changed their involvement with joint ventures during

that time-span. In a period of 3 or 4 years, between

2007 and 2011, 17 cooperatives were involved in 43

additional joint ventures. Over the same period, 44

cooperatives were involved in 55 fewer joint ventures.

The increases are a combination of new formation and

entering already established joint ventures. Likewise,

decreases include both dissolutions of joint ventures

and exiting by partners.

Many local grain and farm supply cooperatives

establish joint ventures with other cooperatives in

their region as a precursor to a merger. This practice

accounts for most of the joint ventures that were

reported as closed between 2007 and 2010/11.

Another strategic use of joint ventures by cooperatives is to spawn new businesses. Regional cooperatives often partner with smaller, local cooperatives to

develop or expand services to farmers that preserve

member ownership and control. As mentioned earlier,

three farm supply cooperatives reported having joint

ventures with rural electric cooperatives to start

propane-distribution businesses. In these three cases,

the farm supply cooperatives eventually bought out

the shares of the rural electric associations. In general,

joint ventures with partners that operate in different

stages of the supply chain, or in different industries,

are more likely to either sustain the partnership or

have one partner eventually withdraw under conditions of mutual benefit. This type of joint venture dissolution contrasts with buyouts in which one partner

will use the acquired business as a competitive

resource against former partners.

In a historical context, several previous joint ventures between cooperatives and multinational grain

5
processors/exporters eventually ended in the latter

buying out the former. Examples of cooperatives that

were in joint ventures and ended up being bought out

include the grain division of Farmland Industries and

Minnesota Corn Processors. Currently, many cooperatives are achieving efficiency from this type of joint

venturing. Such joint ventures may provide benefits so

long as cooperatives maintain awareness that multinational agribusinesses may not regard such partnering

as a long-term relationship.

Conclusions

The availability of the LLC form of organization

since the mid-1990s has offered cooperatives a relatively low-cost way to form ventures in comparison to

incorporation. The LLC has also made it easier for

cooperatives to joint venture with non-cooperatives.

Ownership share of joint ventures by cooperatives is dependent on the type of business and number

of partners. Partners in joint ventures generally aim for

equal participation. Joint ventures for purchasing or

marketing coordination tend to have more than five

partners, and share of ownership is less important

than in capital-intensive businesses with two or three

partners.

Among several types of joint ventures, agricultural processing had the highest participation. Within

the processing type, 16 out of the 30 reported joint

ventures involved dairy product manufacturing.

Most of the recent activity in joint ventures is

reported by cooperatives in the farm supply and

grains sectors. The types of businesses they organize in

joint ventures are agronomy, fuel distribution, feed

mills, grain terminals, bioenergy, and agents for purchasing and marketing.

As farmers are steadily increasing their acreage

to produce grains and oilseeds, they expect their local

cooperative to stay competitive on costs and access to

markets. Cooperatives in grains and oilseeds and farm

supplies are using either mergers or joint ventures to

increase efficiency. Many joint ventures among local

cooperatives are precursors to mergers.

Joint ventures are often transitory, intended to

meet short-term goals of improving efficiency and

market access. While many of them lead to mergers,

others may dissolve or result in an eventual buy-out

by the partner with the most financial assets. In contrast, some of the larger cooperatives have participated

in joint ventures to spawn new businesses. Regional

cooperatives often participate in joint ventures with

local cooperatives for new business formation. Rural

electric cooperatives have participated in propane distribution joint ventures with farm supply cooperatives

for helping with the start-up of those businesses.

Joint ventures by cooperatives cover a range of

different businesses. They can offer several benefits in

size efficiencies, experience in partnering that leads to

merging, and in helping start-up new businesses.

Cooperatives may benefit from joint ventures when

they have clear and realistic objectives and an accurate

understanding of risks.

Glossary

Corporation – A business that is incorporated under a

State’s statutes as a separate legal entity

from its owners that offers limited liability and is subject to taxation of profits

from which distribution of earnings to

owners are also treated as taxable

income to them.

Partnership – An unincorporated business under State

law that is not taxed on earnings distributed to partners as taxable income to

them, but it lacks the limited liability of

a corporation so that all partners are

jointly liable for the debts of the partnership.

Limited An unincorporated business under

Liability State law that operates like a partner

Company ship,except each partner’s personal

(LLC) – financial exposure is limited to his or

her investment in the business.

Limited An unincorporated business under

Liability State law that operates like a partnerPartnership ship,that offers limited liability to equi

(LLP) – ty investors who are not responsible for

partnership management and has man

aging partners who are liable for each

other’s actions and debts.

Joint A business that is organized by two or

Venture – more businesses for collaborative deci

sions and the sharing of profits and

losses. A joint venture must adopt a

legal form such as corporate or LLC.

6
Wholly A business that is owned solely by

owned another business and must adopt a legal

subsidiary – form such as corporate or LLC.

References

Eversull, E. Eldon. “Co-ops ring up additional $14 billion in sales via other ownership structures,” Rural

Cooperatives, USDA, November/December 2008, pp. 18-

19.

Frederick, Donald A. Successful Joint Ventures Among

Farmer Cooperatives, USDA Agricultural Cooperative

Service, Research Report 62, April 1987.

Frederick, Donald A. “The Impact of LLCs on

Cooperatives: Bane, Boon, or Non-Event?,” Journal of

Cooperatives, 1998.

Ginder, Roger. “Condominium Grain Storage,” Ag

Decision Maker, University Extension, Iowa State

University, File A2-36, August 2007.

Hudson, Darren and Cary W. “Bill” Herndon. Mergers,

Acquisitions, Joint Ventures and Strategic Alliances in

Agricultural Cooperatives, Mississippi State University,

Research Report 2000-009, September 2000.

Hulse, Fred E. and Michael J. Phillips. Joint Ventures

Involving Cooperatives in Food Marketing, USDA/Farmer

Cooperative Service, Marketing Research Report no.

1040, 1975.

Reynolds, Bruce J. and Karen J. Spatz. International

Business Arrangements Used by Cooperatives,

USDA/Agricultural Cooperative Service, Research

Report 100, October 1991.

Vandeburg, Jennifer M., Joan R. Fulton, Susan Hine,

and Kevin T. McNamara. Driving Forces and Success

Factors for Mergers, Acquisitions, Joint Ventures and

Strategic Alliances Among Local Cooperatives, USDA

Rural Development Research Report 202, 2004.

7
U.S. Department of Agriculture

Rural Business–Cooperative Service

Stop 3250

Washington, D.C. 20250-3250

Rural Business–Cooperative Service (RBS) provides research,

management, and educational assistance to cooperatives to

strengthen the economic position of farmers and other rural

residents. It works directly with cooperative leaders and Federal

and State agencies to improve organization, leadership, and

operation of cooperatives and to give guidance to further

development.

The cooperative segment of RBS (1) helps farmers and other rural

residents develop cooperatives to obtain supplies and services at

lower cost and to get better prices for products they sell; (2)

advises rural residents on developing existing resources through

cooperative action to enhance rural living; (3) helps cooperatives

improve services and operating efficiency; (4) informs members,

directors, employees, and the public on how cooperatives work

and benefit their members and their communities; and (5)

encourages international cooperative programs. RBS also

publishes research and educational materials and issues Rural

Cooperatives magazine.

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