Agricultural cooperatives have played an important economic role in market economies as
indicated by their substantial levels of asset ownership, sales, and market share in North America
and Western Europe. Historically, growth capital employed to attain these levels was sourced
from either debt instruments or internally generated earnings. Success in generating internal
capital was largely a function of the flexibility of control over payments to members in the form
of patronage dividends, equity redemption, and most importantly for marketing cooperatives,
payments to members for produce