Agrium

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Agrium Inc.

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<th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Type</th> <td>Public (NYSE: AGU, TSX: AGU)</td> </tr> <tr class="note"> <th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Founded</th> <td>1931</td> </tr> <tr> <th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Headquarters</th> <td class="adr">Calgary, AB, Canada</td> </tr> <tr class="note">

 <th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Key people</th>
 <td>Michael M. Wilson, President & CEO</td>
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 <th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Industry</th>
 <td>Agricultural</td>
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 <th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Employees</th>
 <td>6,620</td>
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 <th style="text-align:right; padding-right:0.75em;">Website</th>
 <td class="url">http://www.agrium.com</td>
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Agrium Inc. (NYSE: AGU TSX: AGU) is a major Retail supplier of agricultural products and services in North and South America, a leading global Wholesale producer and marketer of all three major agricultural nutrients and the premier supplier of specialty fertilizers in North America through our Advanced Technologies business unit. Agrium’s strategy is to grow across the value chain through acquisition, incremental expansion of its existing operations and through the development, commercialization and marketing of new products and international opportunities.

Agrium was founded as Cominco Fertilizers, Ltd. in 1931 and changed its name to Agrium, Inc. in 1995. Agrium is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Agrium U.S. Inc., a subsidiary company, is based in Denver, Colorado and is the location of Agrium's retail head office.

1 Divisions
2 External

[edit] Divisions

Agrium operates through three segments:

[edit] Retail

The Retail segment offers farmers a complete range of seed, liquid and dry fertilizer products, along with primary crop protection services including herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. We now operate close to over 500 retail centres in the U.S. and South America.

[edit] Wholesale

The Wholesale segment provides nitrogen-based fertilizers, sulphur, and phosphate-based fertilizers. This segment also engages in the ownership and operation of potash mine and production facility at Vanscoy No. 345, Saskatchewan, Canada, and a phosphate mine in Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada.

The Wholesale segment engages in the ownership and operation of nitrogen-based fertilizer plant in Bahia Blanca, Argentina and is constructing a new production Facility in Damietta, Egypt.

The Damietta production plant has recently become a subject of considerable controversy. The propose site for the plant, within the Damietta port is less than 8 km from the towns of Damietta, Ezbet el-Borg and Ras El-Barr. The region is also home to nearly half of Egypt's commercial fishing fleet.

Consequently, many local groups oppose this location citing concerns about air pollution and degradation of fish stocks. Further concerns relate to the lack of conformance with international standards with regard to proximity of this facility to urban areas.

[edit] Agrium Advanced Technologies

The Agrium Advanced Technologies segment is at the forefront of environmentally friendly, controlled release fertilizer technologies. It produces micronutrients as well as specialty products for consumer, professional turf, horticulture and agricultural markets. Agrium has been a leading international supplier of specialty products for the agricultural market, where the company pioneered the development of cost-effective, controlled-release fertilizers in broad-acre crop applications. This segment markets its products through a network of distributors in Canada and the US.