the growing business of turd

In 2008, along with most??other commodities, the market for fertiliser had reached its highest price peak ever. It gave a taste to the people in the business how much money that could be had in feeding the world. Then the market eased and the takeovers begun. Strategic acquisitions by the major players meant that they were securing their positions to await the next price peak. So far this year, the biggest acquisition came from the Finnish company??Yara which acquired Terra, an American firm, for $4.1 billion.

The acquisition of??Athabasca Potash, from Canada, by??BHP Billition, the world’s largest mining company, for $320m has also added consolidation to the market. Yet the surprising move came from the Brazilian mining giant Vale which????shelled out $3.8 billion??to acquire assets from the U.S agricultural company Bunge.??Statements??from Vail clarifies that their goal is to transform the company into a global leader in the production of potassium -?? with assets projecting to have an annual output of more than 12 million tons, this would add up to about a fourth of global consumption. ??

From the??economist:

The explanation for all this is undoubtedly the open maw and changing dietary habits of the world???s fast-expanding population. It is expected to grow by around a third by 2050 to over 9 billion people, who will all need to be fed. Moreover, as people grow more prosperous they eat more meat, which will require even more crops to provide feed for livestock… The gods, it seems, are smiling on the fertiliser-makers.