This paper discusses the credit risk management on agro-industrial cooperatives, which are important suppliers of costing credit to Brazilian farmers. It also presents and discusses a credit rating model developed by a Brazilian agro-industrial cooperative and the efficiency of its credit portfolio. It was observed that the credit rating has enabled an improvement of the professionalization degree of credit granting, overcoming the paradigm of decisions being just judgmental. The model also helped the Cooperative in adopting a fairer financial politic for its associative board, as well as minimizing risks. Since the cooperative provides credit to its members, which are suppliers, clients and owners of the cooperative at same time, this practice is related to additional political and managerial difficulties. This paper contributes to academic discussions by presenting the performance and expertise of the cooperative in the complex issue of managing credit risk in agro-industrial cooperatives. The report of the Cooperative’s expertise, theoretical assumptions and good practices on credit risk management can aid managers to define and organize a more efficient and lower risk credit policy.