**EXHIBIT 31.1**

** **

**CERTIFICATIONS**

** **

I, James J. Horvath,President and Chief Executive Officer of American Crystal Sugar Company,certify that:

 

1.                                       I have reviewed this quarterly report on Form10-Q of American Crystal Sugar Company (the registrant);

 

2.                                       Based on my knowledge, this quarterly reportdoes not contain any untrue statement of a material fact or omit to state amaterial fact necessary to make the statements made, in light of thecircumstances under which such statements were made, not misleading with respectto the period covered by this quarterly report;

 

3.                                       Based on my knowledge, the financialstatements, and other financial information included in this quarterly report,fairly present in all material respects the financial condition, results ofoperations and cash flows of the registrant as of, and for, the periodspresented in this quarterly report;

 

4.                                       The registrant’s other certifying officer andI are responsible for establishing and maintaining disclosure controls andprocedures (as defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15e and 15d-15e) for theregistrant and we have:

 

a)                                      designed such disclosure controls andprocedures, or caused such disclosure controls and procedures to be designedunder our supervision, to ensure that material information relating to theregistrant, including its consolidated subsidiaries, is made known to us byothers within those entities, particularly during the period in which thisquarterly report is being prepared;

 

b)                                     evaluated the effectiveness of theregistrant’s disclosure controls and procedures and presented in this reportour conclusions about the effectiveness of the disclosure controls andprocedures, as of the end of the period covered by this quarterly report; and

 

c)                                      disclosed in this quarterly report anychanges in the registrant’s internal control over financial reporting thatoccurred during the registrant’s first fiscal quarter that has materiallyaffected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, the registrant’sinternal control over financial reporting.

 

5.                                       The registrant’s other certifying officer andI have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of internal control overfinancial reporting, to the registrant’s auditors and the audit committee ofthe registrant’s board of directors:

 

a)                                      all significant deficiencies and materialweaknesses in the design or operation of the internal controls over financialreporting which are likely to adversely affect the registrant’s ability torecord, process, summarize and report financial information; and

 

b)                                     any fraud, whether or not material, thatinvolves management or other employees who have a significant role in theregistrant’s internal control over financial reporting.

 

 
| April  14, 2004 |   |   |   |   | /s/  JAMES J. HORVATH |   |
|-----------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|-----------------------|--------|
|            |   |   |   |   |                  |   | James  J. Horvath |
|            |   |   |   |   |                  |   | President  and Chief Executive Officer |
|                 |        |        |        |        |                       |        |  |  |

 

----