Nutrien is pulling back further from Brazil’s agricultural retail market. The Canadian company is said to decide to suspend operations in Goiás state, after confirming leaving the distribution business in São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul states.
People with knowledge of the matter told The AgriBiz that Nutrien has decided to suspend its retail operations in Goiás. The company, when contacted, referred to a statement issued Wednesday confirming the closure of stores in São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul and did not comment specifically on Goiás.
In the statement, Nutrien said it had decided to close its retail operations in both states as part of an ongoing portfolio review focused on efficiency and the long-term sustainability of the business. The company said the review also aims to ensure it can consistently provide farmers with solutions that meet their needs.
The moves have renewed questions over how much of Nutrien’s remaining Brazilian distribution business it plans to retain. Some industry participants believe the company, which operates a large distribution network in North America, has decided to leave agricultural retail in Brazil altogether.
Chief Executive Officer Ken Seitz told investors in May that Nutrien expected to determine the future of the business by the end of 2026.
“That really is going to be the focus of the balance of 2026: how that we think about exiting the retail business in Brazil,” Seitz said at the time. “We’re working on that at the moment.”
During Nutrien’s second-quarter earnings call in August, Seitz said the company was continuing to evaluate “strategic options for each component of the retail business in Brazil,” without providing further details.
Nutrien is also in the process of selling its Brazilian soybean seed business, with the transaction expected to be completed in the second half of this year, according to Seitz.
The company has separately been exiting fertilizer blending operations in Brazil. Three of the five facilities it owned in the country — in Itapetininga, São Paulo state; Araxá, Minas Gerais; and Cristalina, Goiás — have already been sold.
Still, Brazil remains a strategic market for Nutrien, Seitz has said. The company intends to continue supplying potash and proprietary products to the country, where it expects demand to keep growing. It remains unclear whether Nutrien will retain some retail locations as part of that strategy.
Nutrien’s retreat is the latest setback for a consolidation push that reshaped Brazil’s agricultural-input distribution industry in recent years.
Like Brazilians retail networks AgroGalaxy and Lavoro, Nutrien expanded its Brazilian farm distribution footprint through acquisitions. Its purchases included Casa do Adubo, the sector’s largest M&A deal in Brazil, valued at about 1.5 billion reais in 2022.
AgroGalaxy is now in a court-supervised reorganization process, broadly similar to a Chapter 11 filing, while Lavoro is undergoing an out-of-court restructuring.
Nutrien’s retail operation has also shrunk amid workforce reductions and cost cuts. The retrenchment by major consolidators has helped strengthen other players in Brazil’s farm-input distribution market, particularly agricultural cooperatives.
This story was translated from the original Portuguese with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by The AgriBiz editorial staff.
