Kicking off National Cooperatives month, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the nation’s cooperative set a record in 2013 with total business volume of more than 246 billion dollars. That surpassed the record the year before by 8 billion dollars. South Dakota Association of Cooperatives Executive Director Brenda Forman says Co-Ops in South Dakota are also doing well.
Forman says CO-Ops generally follow what the overall farm economy is doing. She says the last time economic impact statistics were compiled for South Dakota CO-Ops was in 2012.
The number of full time employees working at Cooperatives nationally last year climbed by almost 7,000 to 136,000. That’s a five percent increase from 2012.