CropLife Retail Week: Corteva, FBN Split Announcements and Nutrien Potash Mine Tour

CropLife’s Eric Sfiligoj and Laura Sowinski share highlights from Lara’s Nutrien potash mine tour in Saskatchewan. Then, Eric breaks down the major corporate shake-ups at Corteva and Farmers Business Network — and what they mean for ag retailers heading into 2026.

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*Below is a partial and edited transcript:

Eric Sfiligoj

Hello, and welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj, editor of CropLife and CropLife IRON. I’m happy to be here again with Lara Sowinski — it feels like it’s been forever! Lara, how are you doing?

Lara Sowinski

I’m doing great, Eric. I finally put my suitcase back in the closet — hopefully for a while. It’s been a busy stretch of travel, but all good trips.

In September, I joined a press tour sponsored by Nutrien to visit their Allan Potash Mine in Saskatchewan. I’ll highlight that today, and maybe next week I’ll share more from the CFD&A Conference, where I spoke on a panel, plus a road trip I took with our colleague, Rick Welder. We visited several ag retailers across Iowa and South Dakota — that’ll be featured in our January issue of CropLife.

That issue will also kick off our coverage of the UN’s International Year of the Woman Farmer (2026), with stories featuring women in ag retail, equipment manufacturing, and more.

But today, I wanted to talk about Nutrien’s Allan Mine Tour. You did the same tour previously and spoke highly of it, so I was excited to go.

Eric Sfiligoj

Yes, I did that tour last year. It’s an amazing experience.

Lara Sowinski

It really was. Nutrien is the world’s largest potash producer, with six mines in Saskatchewan — which, along with Russia, Belarus, and China, supplies most of the world’s potash.

The Allan Mine goes about a kilometer underground and spans nearly 21 kilometers north to south. Everything underground runs on electricity to avoid emissions.

I’ll admit, I was nervous — I’m a bit claustrophobic — but Nutrien’s focus on safety was impressive. Before going underground, we went through extensive safety briefings and videos, which really put me at ease.

Once below, we saw a Goodman small-bore machine cutting through rock. Standing at the fresh rock face afterward was surreal — that surface hadn’t been touched in nearly 390 million years.

We also toured the milling facility, where the potash is washed, dried, and graded. One of the highlights was seeing a pile of “chicklet,” a high-grade form of potash that honestly looked like a scene from Dune.

Our tour guide, Zoe Bell-Dillon, was outstanding. She’s the general foreman at the Allan Mine, a geology graduate from the University of Saskatchewan, and a mine rescue coach. She’s also in the Canadian Navy Reserves. She loves working underground — she’d rather be below ground than above!

Zoe spoke a lot about tele-remote mining and automation. About 50–60% of Nutrien’s boring equipment can now be operated remotely, which keeps operators out of higher-risk areas. Interestingly, she said many of the older operators were the first to embrace the technology.

Overall, the tour was incredible. Nutrien was a great host, and I’ll be writing a full report for our December issue. I’m glad I faced my claustrophobia — after a few hours, it even started to feel oddly calming underground!

Eric Sfiligoj

I’m glad you enjoyed it. Like you said, the size of those caverns really helps. It’s surprisingly spacious down there — not as claustrophobic as you’d think.

Now, shifting gears, there’s been a lot going on in the market while you were away. And to use a bowling analogy — we’ve seen quite a few “splits.”

First, Corteva Agriscience officially announced plans to split into two companies. “New Corteva” will focus on herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, and biologicals, led by Greg Page. The other, temporarily called “SpinCo,” will handle the seed and genetics side, including Pioneer and Dairyland Seed, led by current CEO Chuck Magro.

Combined, they’ll represent about $18 billion in revenue — $10 billion from seeds and $8 billion from crop protection. The split should be finalized in the second half of 2026. Hopefully, we can have a Corteva spokesperson on Retail Week soon to talk more about it.

Lara Sowinski

That’s huge news.

Eric Sfiligoj

It is. And just a week later, Farmers Business Network (FBN) announced its own split. The core FBN will remain a digital marketplace for farmers and ranchers, while a new company, Global Crop Solutions, will handle crop protection products.

Their CEO said the move allows FBN to focus purely on its tech platform — another example of companies simplifying operations.

It reminds me of trends in other industries — like when PepsiCo spun off its restaurant division into Yum! Brands. Maybe ag is starting to see similar restructuring.

Lara Sowinski

Yes, we’ve been talking with colleagues who’ve heard of other potential moves. Definitely something to watch.

Speaking of industry input, we’re launching a Smart Tech Survey soon — part of our ongoing coverage on ag technology. It’s short, about 15 questions, and takes just a few minutes. We’ll email it and share it in our newsletters. We’d really appreciate reader participation.