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Sandy Wieber, Sr. VP of Marketing
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For Immediate Release
January 5, 2011

(Winchester, VA) MidAtlantic Farm Credit announced today that it is returning more than $2.7 million to stockholders in its Valley region. MidAtlantic’s Valley region consists of Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson counties in West Virginia; and Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Shenandoah, and Page counties in Virginia.

“As a cooperative lender, we are committed to two primary missions,” says Thomas Truitt, regional lending manager for the Valley area. “One is to provide a stable source of financing for agriculture and rural homeowners, and the other is to share our profits with our stockholders. We’ve proud that we have been meeting the first mission, even during the financial crisis, and we’re thrilled that we are also able to put literally millions of dollars back into our local community.”

The source of the funds came from three separate pools: the first pool was $639k, which represents the patronage distribution from 2003, put aside while the region was operating as Valley Farm Credit. The second pool was from a retirement of A-Stock (stock held by non-active borrowers), and the third was a lowered stock requirement for current members.

“We’re dedicated to finding a balance between having a strong capital base and returning as much as possible to our borrowers,” says Truitt. “We’re very pleased that our focus on efficiency has allowed us to maintain the proper amount of capital in reserve, and distribute the rest to our stockholder/borrowers.”

Eligible stockholders will receive their checks by the end of the year.

MidAtlantic Farm Credit is one of the largest agricultural lenders on the east coast. They are part of the national Farm Credit System, a cooperative lender with more than 500,000 borrowers and a portfolio of over $160 billion.