LUBBOCK, TX – (Sept. 17, 2019) – Today at its 66th Annual Meeting, Lubbock-based Plains Cotton Cooperative Association announced fiscal year-end further cash distribution to its grower-owners totaling $21.59 million. The distribution, to be completed this month, consists of $9.16 million in cash dividends and $12.43 million in stock retirements and base capital plan retirements. As of June 30, 2019, PCCA’s Warehouse Division had received 1,442,337 bales, one of the division’s top five largest crops in its history. PCCA President and CEO Kevin Brinkley reported the co-op’s achievements were made despite difficult challenges during the fiscal year.
“This past season was full of challenges for our marketing team,” Brinkley said. “Significant difficulties were developing even before the marketing year began as exceptional drought and a rapidly escalating trade war combined to create an unprecedented level of uncertainty in the cotton market. We are coming to terms with the fact that China, which uses one of every three bales in the world, may no longer be a reliable market for U.S. cotton; therefore, we are adapting our business and risks models to this new era along with continuing to develop new marketing solutions for the future.” Brinkley also reported that PCCA has worked hard throughout the year to accomplish the co-op’s mission.
“Our mission is to ensure the long-term profitability of our grower-owners through value-added marketing programs and through services to their gins,” Brinkley said. “To that end, we mapped out a number of initiatives that would help us accomplish our mission. Those initiatives focused on enhanced marketing methods, better communications and strengthened relationships with the individuals that own this cooperative and the people who work for it. I am pleased to report that significant progress has occurred on many of these efforts.”
In other business during the annual meeting, PCCA grower-owners re-elected directors Kody Carson, District 2; Dean Vardeman, District 6; and Dahlen Hancock, District 7. Clint Abernathy was elected director from District 1 to replace retiring director Robert Robbins.
Founded in 1953, PCCA is a marketing cooperative owned by farmers in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and New Mexico dedicated to supplying sustainably-grown, high-quality cotton fiber around the world. In addition to cotton marketing based in Lubbock, Texas, PCCA also owns cotton warehouse facilities in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and develops and offers software programs and networks to local co-op gins that help add value to their grower-owners’ cotton.