Please be sure to reference any material you use from it by including the URL for this page as well as the newsletter's volume, number, date, and the article's author. Typically, the investment level is tied to the rights of each member to deliver a certain quantity of products to the co-op. The NGC model has primarily been used by value-added processing firms, although livestock, poultry, dairy, and vegetable marketing and production organizations have also adopted the model. Their success has helped ignite co-op fever in the Midwest. Dakota Growers mills the durum wheat from its 1,085 members into semolina, which is used to produce pasta in the adjacent plant.
Most manufacturers buy their semolina from other milling companies.
Each share entitles the farmer with the right and obligation to deliver one bushel of durum to the co-op. The share price was determined by dividing the total amount of capital the cooperative needed by the number of bushels of wheat the plant could process. The share price changes to reflect the returns members expect to receive from the cooperative. Since production began in 1993, Dakota Growers have expanded their flour mill and pasta plant, doubling their initial production capacity. Their recent acquisition of two Minnesota pasta companies has further increased annual production capacity.