MOORHEAD, MINN. - February 21, 2003 - Today American Crystal Sugar Company is commemorating its 30 year anniversary as one of America's most prolific sugarbeet cooperatives. As American Crystal looks forward to its third decade of success, it also reflects on its history by examining its roots.

American Beet Sugar Company, the forerunner of today's American Crystal Sugar Company, played a leading role in the development of American's beet sugar industry. Likewise, so did the farmers of the Red River Valley who chose to grow the region's first sugarbeets. However, the most visionary of all were the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association members who proposed the purchase of American Crystal and evolving it into a grower-owned cooperative corporation.

In 1972, sugarbeet growers of the Red River Valley faced a dilemma. American Crystal, the company that processed their beets into sugar, had shut down several of its factories across the country. If it began closing plants in the Red River Valley, growers would be without a crop that kept many of them in business.

In a bold move, lead by Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association executive director, Al Bloomquist, 1,300 farmers did the unthinkable. In a gutsy proposition, they borrowed $86 million and bought American Crystal, transforming it from a company whose shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange into a farmer-owned cooperative. The final transaction took place on February 21, 1973. This move not only preserved a critical commodity enterprise for the region, but also paved the way for the areas sugarbeet industry to flourish.

Since 1973, American Crystal has grown its stock acres from 200,000 to 500,000. It increased the average sugar content of its sugarbeets from 14 percent to 18 percent. It has raised its average tons per acre from 12 tons to 19 tons and increased the slicing capacity of its factories from 16,400 tons per day to 36,000 tons per day. Along the way the cooperative has lead the industry in advancing sugarbeet agricultural practices and innovative sugarbeet storage techniques. American Crystal also pioneered the quality payment system in which shareholders were compensated for the sugar content of the beets they delivered as well as their tonnage. American Crystal also helped forge marketing partnerships with other sugar producing cooperatives to form Midwest Agri-Commodities, a global marketer of sugarbeet co-products, and United Sugars Corporation, the nation's second largest marketer of refined sugar.

Today's American Crystal accounts for about 15 percent of all the sugar produced in the United States and is the nation's largest beet sugar producer.

"In light of this important milestone, I would like to salute all the important business decisions, large and small, that have lead this organization down the road to prosperity" said American Crystal President and CEO James Horvath. "American Crystal's success is a tribute to all the people who grow the crop, work the harvest and transform beets into sugar, and the communities where we work as well as the many customers who use our products."

American Crystal Sugar Company is an agricultural cooperative owned by approximately 3,000 shareholders in the Red River Valley (Northwestern Minnesota and eastern North Dakota) involved in the growing and processing of sugarbeets. The company operates sugar factories at East Grand Forks, Crookston and Moorhead, Minnesota, and Drayton and Hillsboro, North Dakota. Its corporate headquarters and technical services center are located in Moorhead. American Crystal owns a factory in Sidney, Montana operating as Sidney Sugars Incorporated.