CHS Inc.

What does CHS own?

CHS owns grain terminals and processing plants, oil refineries, agronomy distribution, the Cenex fuel and convenience store brand, and nitrogen production at Spiritwood, North Dakota, plus stakes in the Ventura Foods and Ardent Mills joint ventures.

Is CHS publicly traded?

Not in the conventional sense. CHS is a farmer-owned cooperative with no public common stock, but five series of its preferred stock trade on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

Who founded CHS?

CHS was formed in 1998 by the merger of Cenex, whose predecessor Farmers Union Central Exchange was founded in 1931, and Harvest States Cooperatives, formed from earlier grain cooperative consolidations.

Where is CHS headquartered?

CHS is headquartered in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, USA, in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

How many brands does CHS own?

CHS operates under two principal brands: CHS for its agribusiness services and Cenex for fuel, lubricants, and convenience stores, alongside joint venture interests including Ventura Foods.

Who owns CHS?

CHS is owned by its members: farmers, ranchers, and local cooperatives across the United States. Earnings are returned to members through patronage and equity redemptions.

How large is CHS?

For fiscal 2025, CHS reported $35.5 billion in revenue, $597.9 million in net income, and approximately 10,700 employees. It is the largest farmer-owned cooperative in the United States.

The cooperative's oldest root is the Farmers Union Central Exchange, founded in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1931 by a group of local cooperatives seeking bulk purchasing power for fuel, feed, and supplies during the Depression. The Exchange grew into a regional petroleum and supply cooperative, adopted the Cenex name in 1983 after merging with FS Services, and built the Cenex brand into a rural energy staple across the Upper Midwest. By the 1990s the Exchange had also built a wholesale agronomy operation and a patronage system that became the model for the modern cooperative's earnings recycling.

The second root is Harvest States Cooperatives, itself formed through the early 1990s consolidation of grain marketing cooperatives including GTA Feeds and regional wheat and terminal cooperatives. Harvest States gave the combination its grain export and processing muscle, with terminal capacity on the Mississippi River system and Pacific Northwest export corridors that moved Upper Midwest grain into world markets.

Cenex and Harvest States merged in 1998 to form Cenex Harvest States Cooperatives, headquartered in the Twin Cities suburb of Inver Grove Heights. The cooperative adopted the shorter name CHS Inc. in 2003 as its business expanded well beyond the exchange's original territory. The logic of the merger was vertical integration: pair Cenex's energy and supply business with Harvest States' grain handling so members could buy inputs, sell grain, and source fuel from the same cooperative system.

Through the 2000s and 2010s CHS invested in energy infrastructure, acquiring the Laurel, Montana refinery and later the McPherson, Kansas refinery, and built one of the largest wholesale agronomy distribution networks in North America. It formed joint ventures in food processing, including Ventura Foods with Mitsui and Ardent Mills with Cargill. A fertilizer joint venture with CF Industries dissolved in 2016 when CF bought out CHS's interest for approximately $2.8 billion, proceeds CHS redirected into its own nitrogen production at Spiritwood.

Jay Debertin has led the cooperative as President and CEO since 2017. Fiscal 2025 was a tougher year: revenue fell 10% to $35.5 billion on lower commodity prices and net income dropped to $597.9 million from $1.1 billion in fiscal 2024, with the energy segment posting a small pretax loss after heavy refinery margins the prior year faded. Even so, the cooperative stayed comfortably profitable, and the equity-method joint ventures in food processing supplied a meaningful share of earnings while the core commodity businesses compressed.

CHS publishes a sustainability report covering soil health programs, renewable fuels, and emissions reduction across its refinery and agronomy operations. Its member-owned structure ties its ESG posture to farm economics rather than investor frameworks. No third-party certifications such as B Corp apply, and the cooperative's disclosures are self-reported.

CHS has been named alongside other agricultural input distributors in antitrust litigation filed by farmers alleging coordination in crop input pricing. The multidistrict litigation, pending in federal court in Tennessee, has produced settlements by some manufacturer defendants without admissions of wrongdoing; the distribution defendants' cases have proceeded through litigation without a finding of liability against CHS as of September 2026.

The cooperative's refinery and grain handling operations generate routine OSHA and environmental compliance matters consistent with the industry. Nothing on record has threatened its cooperative charter or its Nasdaq preferred listings.