Agrium was a major

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

supplier of

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating Plant, plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of Sedentism, sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of Domestication, domesticated species created food ...

products and services in North America, South America and Australia and a wholesale producer and marketer of all three major agricultural nutrients and a supplier of specialty

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

s in North America. In 2018, Agrium merged with

PotashCorp The Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, also known as PotashCorp, was a company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. The company merged with Calgary-based Agrium to form Nutrien, in a transaction that closed on January 1, 2018. The company was th ...

to form

Nutrien Nutrien is a Canadian fertilizer company based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It is the largest producer of potash and the third largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer in the world. It has over 2,000 retail locations across North America, South ...

History

Agrium was founded as Cominco Fertilizers (short for Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company) in 1931 and changed its name to Agrium in 1995. Agrium was headquartered in

Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,30 ...

, Canada. Crop Production Services, Inc., a subsidiary company, was based in

Loveland, Colorado The City of Loveland is the home rule municipality that is the second most populous municipality in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. Loveland is situated north of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver and is the 14th most populous city ...

and was the location of Agrium's Retail Business Unit head office. The company was a part-owner of

Canpotex Canpotex, short for Canadian Potash Exporters , is a Canadian potash exporting and marketing firm, incorporated in 1970 and operating since 1972. Based in Saskatchewan, Canpotex manages the entire Saskatchewan potash exporting industry (excluding C ...

, which manages all potash exporting from

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. On September 12, 2016, Agrium announced that it had agreed to merge with PotashCorp, which will make the combined company,

, the largest producer of potash and second-largest producer of

nitrogen fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

worldwide. Agrium divested certain U.S. assets. The merger closed on January 1, 2018.

Business units

Agrium operated in two business segments:

Retail

Agrium operated close to 1,500 retail agricultural centres in the U.S., Canada, South America and Australia under the brand names Crop Production Services (CPS), Crop Production Services Canada (CPSC), Agroservicios Pampeanos S.A. and Landmark. Crop Production Services was acquired in 1994. On December 3, 2010 Agrium announced the completion of the acquisition of the Australian Wheat Board for a total acquisition price of $1.236-billion Australian dollars. This acquisition added to the retail division of Agrium. Roughly 40% of the AWB holdings were sold to

Cargill Cargill, Incorporated, is a privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privately held corporation in the United States in ter ...

, including the Commodity Management Business. In October 2013, Agrium announced the acquisition of

Viterra Viterra began as a Canadian grain handling business, the nation's largest grain handler, with its historic formative roots in prairie grain-handling cooperatives, among them the iconic Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Viterra Inc grew into a global agr ...

's Canadian retail assets, after previously acquiring Viterra's retail locations in Australia.

Wholesale

The Wholesale segment produced nitrogen,

phosphate In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid . The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phospho ...

potash Potash () includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form.

, and

sulphur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...

-based

fertilizers A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

. This segment also owned and operated a potash mine and production facility in the Rural Municipality of Vanscoy No. 345 in

, Canada, and a phosphate mine in Conda, Idaho, U.S. The Wholesale segment engaged in the ownership of nitrogen-based fertilizer plants in

Bahía Blanca Bahía Blanca (; English: White Bay) is a city in the southwest of the provinces of Argentina, province of Buenos Aires Province, Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 3 ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, and in Damietta, Egypt.

Environmental and social impacts

In 2003, Agrium was issued an administrative compliance order for excessive emissions at a

Kennewick, Washington Kennewick () is a city in Benton County, Washington, Benton County in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. It is located along the southwest bank of the Columbia River, just southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima R ...

plant. Agrium discovered the violations at the Kennewick facility through a comprehensive Clean Air Act audit of the facility in late 2000. Agrium promptly reported the audit findings to EPA under EPA's policy on Incentives for Self-Policing, also referred to as the "Self-Disclosure Policy". In 2005, Agrium was fined for failure to disclose release of toxic gases at this same plant.Kennewick Fertilizer Plant Issued $24,575 Penalty for Late Reporting of Hazardous Gas Release , Newsroom , US EPA
/ref>

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Companies based in Calgary Chemical companies established in 1931 Fertilizer companies of Canada Grain industry of Australia Retail companies established in 1931 Retail companies disestablished in 2017 1931 establishments in Alberta 2017 disestablishments in Alberta Stock and station agencies Companies formerly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Agriculture companies established in 1931