Crop input company Nutrien is projecting confidence in its business for its 2026 fiscal year — despite challenges facing U.S. farmers — as demand for its fertiliser remains strong, the company’s CEO and President, Ken Seitz, shared during his appearance at the BMO Global Metals, Mining and Critical Minerals Conference.
Nutrien customers will use government assistance, like the Farmer Bridge Assistance, to purchase essential crop inputs like fertiliser, and the company’s winter fill potash programme being over-subscribed, resulting in volume increase, Seitz explained. Farmers are starting to see soybean prices strengthen, and corn prices are at the 10-year average, Seitz explained.
“We believe that farmers are staring into the spring again, looking at their pocketbooks and saying, ‘I’m going to plant corn the way that I always do, and I’m going to do the things I need to do to maximize yields in this environment.’ ... What we’re seeing heading into the spring here is we’re expecting it to be a normal spring,” Seitz elaborated.
This comes nearly a week after Nutrien posted its full-year 2025 results with $17.620 billion in sales, compared to $17.832 billion the previous year. Nutrien’s stock popped on the results and strong demand for its fertiliser, with the stock closing at $72.76 on Feb. 24, up 35.85% for the year.
Nutrien responds to Brazil, Trinidad challenges
However, Nutrien is doing some “soul searching” on how to access and grow in the Brazilian market, Seitz admitted. The ag giant has rolled out a Brazil margin improvement plan, including shuttering retail locations and idling mixing facilities in the country.
Brazil is “going to add more acres again this year — 2% probably — to the current complement of arable land. So, we know we are going to do potash. We know we’re going to do proprietary products, and particularly, crop nutritionals in that part of the world. It’s this retail question that ... has been challenged,” Seitz said.
He added, “At the moment, we’re assessing how and whether that retail presence is required and necessary for us to achieve our overall objectives in Brazil. And we expect to have some conclusions on all of these files this year.”
Nutrien is also navigating challenges to its Trinidad operations, which did a controlled shutdown of its Trinidad nitrogen operations at its Point Lisas’ facility on Oct. 23, 2025, due to government restrictions of the port and “a lack of reliable and economic natural gas supply,” the company shared in a press release.
The fertiliser giant is working with the Trinidad government on a package for port fees, access to port, and the cost of natural gas, but they have yet to reach an agreement, Seitz said. In the meantime, Nutrien’s supply chain filled in for the Point Lisas’ facility, he added.
“We’re exploring all of the alternatives for Trinidad. What we saw last year, though, is that the balance of the network had stepped up. We [had] operating rates above 90%. We’re able to meet all of our customer needs with our network [minus] Trinidad,” Seitz elaborated.
