Industrial Development Bond Financing For Farmer Cooperatives

A nationwide survey of 7,535 farmer cooperatives shows both large and small cooperatives -- locals, region.a1s, and interregiona1s -- in 24 States using industrial development (ID) bonds for long-term debt. financing to 'construct or expand grain elevators, pollution control facilities, feed mills. fertilizer plants, fluid milk plants, and warehouses. As of June 1979,.52 cooperatives had 130 projects financed with ID bonds totaling $265 million, with a median of $1 million per project. Although ID bonds originated in Mississippi in 1936, major co-op use of these tax-exempt bonds occurred after 1975, when 62 percent of all such co-op ID bond-financed projects originated.