FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Northwest Farm Credit Services Reports 2017 First Quarter Earnings

Customer-Members Receive Increased Cash Patronage

SPOKANE, Wash. (May 3, 2017) – Northwest Farm Credit Services, the Northwest’s leading agricultural lending cooperative, announced 2017 first quarter earnings of $65.4 million, compared to $58.4 million for the same quarter of 2016. The increase in earnings was primarily due to lower expenses for credit losses in our loan portfolio. Total capital increased 1.8 percent during the quarter to $2.3 billion. The association’s loan portfolio grew approximately 5 percent from one year ago.

“Despite a significant downturn in the nation’s ag economy, our customer-members in the Northwest have come through the 2016 growing season relatively well and most are in a good position to deal with the continued economic volatility,” said President and CEO Phil DiPofi.  “We’re pleased with our company’s continued strong financial performance, which allows us to support our customer-members through the economic cycles in agriculture, forestry and fisheries.”

As a cooperative, Northwest FCS returns a share of its net earnings to customer-members in the form of patronage dividends. During the first quarter of 2017, a record $99.4 million was returned to eligible customer-members in the form of cash patronage, based on the association’s strong financial performance in 2016 and the amount of a customer’s business with the association. This contributed to an 8.2 percent increase in total cash patronage returned in 2017 compared to 2016. Since the patronage program began in 2000, Northwest FCS has returned approximately $690 million in cash patronage to customer-members.

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About Northwest Farm Credit Services
Northwest FCS is an $11 billion financial cooperative providing financing and related services to farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, commercial fishermen, timber producers, rural homeowners and crop insurance customers in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. Northwest FCS is a member of the nationwide Farm Credit System that supports agriculture and rural communities with reliable, consistent credit and financial services.

Contact:
Debra Strohmaier, Communications Specialist
debra.strohmaier@northwestfcs.com
509.340.5443

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