Investor Conference Highlights and Analysis: Nutrien, Corteva & FMC

Index

1. Nutrien

   1. Farm Financial Health

   2. Brazilian Retail

   3. 5-Year Retail Growth

   4. The Power of Reframing

   5. Systematic Financial Modelling and Capital Allocation

   6. Targeting the Corn Belt

2. Corteva

   1. Biological Targets

   2. Crop Protection Company Collaboration

   3. Competing with Bayer in Soybeans

   4. Hybrid Wheat Business Models

   5. How Corteva is Using AI

      1. Discovery

      2. Regulatory and the Theory of Constraints

      3. Operations

3. FMC

   1. Company Plan A and Plan B Breakdown

   2. Licensing Structure

   3. Who Acquires FMC Analysis

Two major investor conferences were happening in New York this week: The BMO 35th Global Metals, Mining & Critical Minerals Conference and the Bank of America 2026 Global Agriculture and Materials Conference.

These are investor conferences hosted by two large investment banks covering the agriculture and resources sectors. They bring in C-suite executives from publicly traded companies, such as fertilizer producers and crop input manufacturers, alongside institutional investors, analysts, and portfolio managers and have detailed discussions about their business and industry.

For Upstream Ag Insights, these events are full of forward-looking intelligence. Unlike quarterly earnings calls, which are often backward-looking and usually more tightly scripted, conference Q&A sessions often surface candid commentary on demand trends, pricing outlooks, capital allocation priorities, and strategic pivots that don't get prioritized for press releases or other public materials.

I listen to, or read through the transcripts of all of these presentations closely so you don't have to, distilling the most relevant strategic signals for agribusiness professionals navigating an industry in the middle of significant structural change.

Nutrien

This week at BMO’s 35th Global Metals, Mining & Critical Minerals Conference, Nutrien CEO Ken Seitz participated in a fireside chat with Joel Jackson of BMO.

There were several stand out components.

Farm Financial Health

First, surrounding the farmer outlook, including using Nutrien’s financial segment as a proxy for farmer financial health:

Notably, in the equipment realm, CNH has experienced a tick up according to their most recent investor call, with delinquencies at 3.1%, with the majority of that occurring in South America:

If we look at the “Agriculture Cycle,” CNH shared a useful chart highlighting historical basis for trends and forecasted a range for the future in early 2025. Now that we are into 2026, many companies, like CNH, AGCO and Deere are suggesting the bottom will be in the early to middle of this year, suggesting somewhere in the middle of the range of the previous forecast:

Brazilian Retail

Brazil has been topical for Nutrien. They have struggled to make things work in Brazil from a retail perspective.

Seitz shared some thoughts on how Nutrien might continue to participate in the South American market moving forward:

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