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 th ...

supplier of

agricultural Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

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 to form Nutrien.

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 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 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population ...

, 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, which manages all potash exporting from

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in 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 the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North ...

. On September 12, 2016, Agrium announced that it had agreed to merge with PotashCorp, which will make the combined company, Nutrien, the largest producer of potash and second-largest producer of nitrogen fertilizer 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 company, privately held American global food corporation based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, Minnetonka, Minnesota, and incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware. Founded in 1865, it is the largest privatel ...

, 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 ag ...

'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 phosph ...

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 The Rural Municipality of Vanscoy No. 345 ( 2016 population: ) is a rural municipality (RM) in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan within Census Division No. 12 and Division No. 5. Located in the central portion of the province, it is sou ...

, Canada, and a phosphate mine in

Conda, Idaho Conda is an unincorporated community in Caribou County, Idaho, United States. Conda is northeast of Soda Springs. Conda has a post office with ZIP code 83230. History Conda's population was estimated at 200 in 1960. Climate This climatic re ...

, 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 province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and is the seat of government of the Bahía Blanca Partido. It had 301,572 inhabitants according to the . It is the ...

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, t ...

, and in

Damietta, Egypt Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an easter ...

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 in the U.S. state of Washington. It is located along the southwest bank of the Columbia River, just southeast of the confluence of the Columbia and Yakima rivers and across from the confluence of the Co ...

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