	illinois co op futures dissolution vote set the shareholders of illinois cooperative futures co the futures trading arm of many midwest farm cooperatives for more than years will vote wednesday on its possible dissolution the directors of the company called a special meeting and recommended its dissolution last month citing falling volume and increasing costs sources close to the organization told reuters the pullout of growmark inc which holds more than pct of the capital stock led to the call for dissolution the possible demise of the cooperative has set clearing houses scrambling for the trading business of the regional and local cooperatives that comprise its membership ironically it was growmark at that time a regional farm cooperative with major river terminal elevators that founded illinois cooperative futures on december but growmark became affiliated last year with archer daniels midland of decatur ill and markets its  through a joint subsidiary of the two companies adm growmark with that relationship growmark no longer needs to trade futures through the cooperative said tom mulligan president of the co op membership in the company which mulligan termed a cooperative of cooperatives has declined from in a notable loss was agriindustries of iowa which became affiliated with cargill inc illinois co op s other members include such regional cooperatives as indiana  based in indianapolis goldkist of atlanta ga midstates in toledo ohio farmland industries in kansas city mo farmers commodities des moines and harvest states in minneapolis some observors said the demise of illinois cooperative futures co is a serious blow to the cooperative system instead of banding together the individual cooperatives are forced to go their own ways said the floor manager of one cash house at the chicago board of trade such a move would destroy the cohesiveness that gives farm cooperatives an advantage in the market at a time that a few major commercial companies are growing dominant he said don hanes vice president for communications with the national council of farm cooperatives said cooperatives exist today down from five years ago the period we ve gone through in the past five years has been quite a crunch he said there s been a lot of consolidation in the marketing co ops one problem he said is the co ops sell the  to the major commercials for export rather than exporting it themselves losing potential profits but exporting  requires heavy investments and the multi million dollar loss posted six years ago by farmers export co a co op set up to export s served to make folks gun shy hanes said mulligan said he believes the dissolution if it is approved is a result of change in the futures industry rather than a change in u s agricultural economics a  dealer at one member co op said the futures arm was a convenience something that saved us a little bit of money its dissolution will force us to change our way of doing business we re sorry to see the co op go by the wayside he said but there are lot of people out there to do business with there are plenty of capable firms steven w cavanaugh vice president for  marketing with indiana  said he would prefer to trade futures through a chicago based cooperative in terms of clearing our business as a unit as opposed to individuals there would be economic savings he said but added the times change and with changing times come different opinions of what businesses ought to be around cavanaugh said the possible demise of the futures arm had nothing to do with its profitability i would guarantee you that this company is not in trouble it is a sound healthy organization in the year ended february the illinois cooperative reported income of mln dlrs and members equity or net worth of mln dlrs the annual report for the most recent year has not been filed under the cooperative system income from operations is returned as patronage refunds to the members income and refunds in the past five years have been declining in the year ended february the co op reported income of mln dlrs and patronage refunds of mln dlrs patronage refunds in the year ended february totalled mln dlrs you re dealing with substantially lower volume mulligan said lower volume translates into higher costs according to the company s annual report growmark owns pct of the preferred shares and four pct of the common shares of illinois cooperative futures co mulligan declined to speculate on how much of the capital growmark is entitled to he said he could not determine the figure unless the shareholders decide in favor of dissolution equity is distributed according to each member s trading volume and as a result changes from year to year however mulligan said the company could continue to meet minimum capital requirements to trade futures even if growmark pulled out reuter 
