How Nutrien Became the World’s Largest Ag Retailer
December 29, 2025 
Editor’s Note: As we mark the first 25 years of the 21st century, CropLife reflects on the innovations, challenges, and transformations that have shaped ag retail — honoring our past while looking ahead to agriculture’s promising future. In this article, we spotlight Nutrien as a prime example of industry evolution, tracing its journey from regional players to the world’s leading ag retail powerhouse.
Today, Nutrien Ltd. is one of the largest agricultural-focused companies in the world. From its headquarters in Saskatoon, SK, CAN, the company oversees a vast network of more than 26,000 employees across the globe with operations in mining, crop nutrient/seed supply, and ag retail. Overall, Nutrien is the world’s No. 1 producer of potash, the No. 3 producer of nitrogen-based fertilizers, and the No. 1 ag retailer with outlets in more than 50 countries and annual sales of $29 billion.
But at the dawn of the 21st century, Nutrien was two separate companies – Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and Agrium Inc., which was headquartered in Calgary, AB. Both companies spent many of the 2000s and early 2010s building up their respective businesses through acquisitions and product sales.
In addition, Agrium spent much of its time creating one of the largest ag retail systems around the globe. During the early 2000s, the company’s ag retail outlets conducted business under a pair of names – Western Farm Service in the Western portion of the U.S. and Crop Production Services across the rest of the country. Each sported a few hundred locations.
Over the next few years, Agrium steadily increased its ag retail footprint across North America. In 2006, the company purchased Royster-Clark. In 2008, United Agri Products (then the No. 2 ag retail in the U.S. by size) was added to the mix. In 2010, the Agriliance outlets joined the Agrium family. Finally, in 2013, Agrium acquired Viterra.
“Today, we operate almost 1,500 retail selling locations across North America,” Rob Clayton, Senior Vice President, North America for Nutrien Ag Solutions, told CropLife in a 2024 interview. “We offer a complete range of seed, liquid and dry fertilizer, crop protection, specialty nutrition products, and biologicals, as well as related services and solutions.” This has ranked the company as the No. 1 operation on the annual CropLife 100 list of the nation’s largest ag retailers, with sales well in excess of $1 billion.
The Urge to Merge
Despite their respective efforts to expand, both Potash Corp. and Agrium were facing severe economic pressures as the mid-2010s rolled around. In September 2016, both companies announced that they had entered into merger discussions. The merger was suggested in the context of low fertilizer prices, said both leadership teams, with the hope that a larger company would be better able to increase prices. The leadership also hoped that a could reduce costs through consolidation to the tune of $500 million annually.
The transaction was originally expected to close in mid-2017 but was delayed to January 2018 because of regulatory hurdles. Still, by 2018, Nutrien was officially up and running.
Today, Nutrien Ag Solutions’ network of ag retail outlets extends well beyond just North America. In fact, according to Clayton, the company has the largest grower direct retail distribution network in Canada, Australia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Brazil, servicing more than 600,000 grower accounts worldwide.
“Our supply chain and strategic partnerships include more than 1,000 suppliers and 4,000 crop consultants who provide advice to growers, from the crop planning stage through harvest,” he said. “Our parent company, Nutrien, produces and distributes approximately 25 million tons of potash, nitrogen, and phosphate products for agricultural, industrial, and feed customers globally.”
In July 2022, Nutrien announced that it would acquire Brazilian retail fertilizer company Casa do Adubo, increasing its expansion in Latin America.
With its network building still ongoing, Nutrien is also looking forward to the next 25 years. Like other ag companies in 2025, the company is experimenting with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its operations. “We’ve been looking at AI since March [2024],” Paul Bonnett, Senior Director of Digital Agronomy and Data Services, told CropLife in a 2024 interview. “Machine enabled agronomy is the future of agriculture.”
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