United Oilseeds pays out record £420,000 to members

Grower-owned co-op United Oilseeds Producers will pay its members a record £420,000 as a result of improved performance in the year ended 30 June 2015.

This is the 10th redistribution of profits by the co-op in consecutive years.

The group, which has 4,500 trading members, achieved a slight increase in pre-tax profit, to £1.484m compared with £1.468m in 2014 and just over £800,000 five years ago.

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Turnover was also slightly up, at £165.4m, while net worth rose to £8.33m, up from £7.982m. Five years ago net worth was £4.94m.

The average ex-farm price paid by the group to growers so far in the 2015-16 season, including bonuses, is £281.51/t, about £3/t down on the previous year’s overall total.

The average yield in 2015 across 14,121ha surveyed by the group was 3.85t/ha, compared with 3.52t/ha in 2014.

United Oilseeds Producers’ marketing arm, United Oilseeds Marketing, handled 630,000t of oilseed rape in the year to 30 June, down from 680,000t the previous season. It also markets a growing tonnage of other commodities, totalling almost 43,000t last season. This was dominated by more than 20,000t of milling oats for Morning Foods.