Agricultural cooperatives had record sales of more than $246 billion in 2013, the third year in a row of record-setting volume and a reflection of boom times in the farm sector, said the Agriculture Department. Sales of crop and livestock were up by 6 percent and sales of farm supplies rose by 2 percent in 2013. Some 136,000 people work at the co-ops; 33 of them reported annual sales of more than $1 billion while a third of them, or 726 co-ops, had less than $5 million in sales.
The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives says there are around 3,000 ag co-ops with activities that including marketing, bargaining, farm supply and lending.