PERRY, Ga. — AgGeorgia Farm Credit has announced that dividends totaling $13,953,640 have been declared by its board of directors, with receipt by members anticipated the first week of April, with over $2,090,500 of this total going to residents in Colquitt and the bordering counties.

“We know that this is a particularly stressful time for many because of COVID-19, and our board and staff are pleased to be able to give our members some good news and some extra cash in their pockets,” said Dave Neff, chairman of the AgGeorgia Farm Credit Board of Directors. 

This marks the 32nd consecutive year the cooperative has returned profits to its members through its Patronage Refund Program, with over $382 million in cash being paid out since 1988.  The refund, from 2019 earnings, consists of more than $4.1 million in cash and over $9.7 million in allocated surplus, with the surplus portion to be used to maintain the capital position of the cooperative and returned to members at a later date. 

“The patronage refund reduces our members’ cost of borrowing considerably, this year lowering the average member’s stated rate by 1.50%,” said AgGeorgia’s CFO Carrie McCall.  “For every dollar of interest expense accrued by our borrowers in our general portfolio in 2019, 24 cents is being paid back to them.”

AgGeorgia Farm Credit is an agricultural lending cooperative owned by over 4,500 member-borrowers, proud to have been helping Georgia grow for generations.  AgGeorgia provides farm loans for land, equipment, livestock and production; rural home mortgages, and services such as crop insurance and leasing.  AgGeorgia Farm Credit has 20 branches serving 79 counties in Georgia.  It is part of the national Farm Credit System, a network of financial cooperatives established in 1916 to provide a dependable source of credit to farmers and rural America.  For more information, visit www.aggeorgia.com.