West Central Cooperative and Farmers Cooperative Company are in negotiations to merge the two businesses together.

A letter of intent to study the membership benefits of unification was signed this past Tuesday by both company’s board of directors.  It’s the first step in the potential merger for the two leading farmer-owned cooperatives.

Farmers Cooperative Board President John Scott says their first series of discussions identified opportunities that could benefit their members for decades.  West Central Board President Sue Tronchetti agrees and adds that the letter allows them to further explore equity, governance, organizational structure, asset investment and other member-focused efficiencies.

West Central Chief Executive Officer Milan Kucerak says each company has its respective strength, which together, could benefit each other such as Farmers Cooperative has access to every major rail line in Iowa while West Central has built-in soybean demand for 20 million bushels per year at their manufacturing plant.

In the next few weeks, each company will have a series of employee and member meetings to conduct due diligence.  Each board will then determine whether or not to bring the unification proposal to a member vote.  Both Scott and Tronchetti encourage members to participate in the meetings and provide feedback and concerns.  A list of meeting dates and locations can be found on each company’s websites and logging in to their customer section.