Farmer co-ops set net income record; gross business volume hits 126.5 billion dollar

摘要

Farmer cooperatives had a record 3.2 billion dollar in pre-tax net income in 2006, fueled by farm supply sales - especially by higher prices for petroleum products. This marks the second consecutive year that a new net income record was set. Net income shot up by 24 percent from 2005, when 2.5 billion dollar in net income was reaped by the nation's farmer-owned cooperatives. Overall farm supply sales increased by almost 17 percent, with petroleum sales alone registering a 5 billion dollar gain. On the marketing side, sale of crops, livestock and value-added products by cooperatives decreased 2 percent. The biggest