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$12 Trillion Industry Steams Toward
More Record-Smashing Highs In 2024¹

 

The food and agriculture sector is on fire.

And if you’ve been watching the food and ag sector stocks set new all-time highs over the last year, you’re going to want to see this now. 

Because high food prices have sent revenues and earnings soaring across the sector.

Bloomberg recently reported:
 
And there’s still more room to grow.

The USDA’s latest “Food Price Outlook” warns food prices could jump as much as 7.9% in 2024.

The bonanza for food and agriculture could keep going for a long time.  

But what you’re going to see below is about a unique and urgent situation forming within the industry.

It’s about a small, yet fast-growing sector that has largely missed out on the great food and ag Sector boom of the last couple of years.

But now, due to a series of global events combined with years of underinvestment, it could soar exponentially beyond the rest of the food and ag sector. 

Industry insiders are seeing the massive potential, in the $12 trillion dollar U.S. ag Sector

For example, Agri-Pulse, a major agriculture industry publication, is predicting “boom years” ahead for it.³

Today you’ll see how it’s all shaping up and you’ll learn how one upstart company has spent years working to position itself and make sure it’s at the center of it all.

It's all included below -- including the name of the companies at the heart of all this. 

So let’s start at the beginning on the "front lines" of who has been making a fortune from all this.

 

High Food Prices Supercharge Agriculture Stocks

High food prices have crushed many consumers. 

But the high prices are making fortunes for investors. 

Time magazine recently broke down what’s happening in, “How Food Companies' Massive Profits Are Making Your Groceries More Expensive.”⁴

The article showed how net earnings are soaring for food companies.

Kraft-Heinz earnings are up 448%.

Cal-Maine Foods are up 718%.

And Conagra is getting practically “left behind” with earnings growth of 56%.

But it’s not just the top of the food chain here. 

The revenues and earnings boom has flowed all the way down to the other end of the food and ag sector. 

Look at Deere & Co. 

Its earnings have exploded right along with food prices. 

Back in 2019 the farming equipment giant earned just over $10 per share. 

Last year it booked earnings of $33 per share.

That’s a gain of 230% in earnings and Deere’s stock has followed right on behind. 
 


Farmland is another example. 

The average value of an acre U.S. farmland has increased more in the past two years than it has in the nine years before that.⁵

High food prices are making fortunes for investors across the entire sector. 

But there’s a situation that could send one essential agricultural commodity soaring and potentially deliver gains bigger than them all. 
 

 

Dark Secret Propels Modern Agriculture To Record Highs

One of the greatest opportunities right now across the food and agriculture industry is in fertilizer.

The two charts below show why fertilizers are an essential part of modern agriculture.

The first chart shows how crop production has soared while total farmland has remained largely stagnant⁶:
 

The second chart shows the correlation between the huge rise in crop yields above and the equally large rise in fertilizer use⁷:
 

That’s modern farming right there - more fertilizer, more yield.

And it’s becoming both a problem and a potential opportunity.

 

Fertilizer Facing "Silent Crisis"

The fertilizer industry is becoming more strained than ever.¹⁵

One of the best examples of the upheaval in the fertilizer industry is potash (pronounced "pot" and "ash").  

The New York Times has identified potash as an “obscure but crucial” commodity.⁹

Potash is truly crucial.

And we’ve got a picture from the University of Florida to demonstrate the impact of potash fertilizer on corn¹³.

Here’s corn with different amounts of potash fertilization¹³:
   
The big corn on the left has had ample potash fertilizer applied during their growth. 

The small ones on the right were officially defined as “potassium deficient.”

Corn is just one example of the essential power of potash. 

Potash is used for carrots, peas, beans, and an endless variety of fruits and grains.

But the future of large and reliable supply of potash is more at risk than it ever has been since modern agriculture began in the 1950s.

 

Potash's “Silent Crisis” Builds

Potash is facing some big problems.

The deeper-reaching financial media have seen the potash situation building.

Bloomberg has warned of a “…Global potash deficit.”¹⁰

The scientific community sees it too.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has recently warned of a “shortage” of potash.¹⁷

But it could be even worse than that.

Because the potash deficit is causing a time of great upheaval in the global potash market.

And it has opened up a potential massive opportunity for companies like American Potash (CSE:KCL / OTC:APCOF) that are just entering their major growth phases of development.

Potash alone is a $26 billion market.¹¹

But for such a sizable industry, it’s concentrated in very few hands. 

The reason is because large scale potash deposits are relatively rare. 

There are only a handful of countries with active, industrial scale potash deposits. 

Potash production is so concentrated that only two small regions produce 70% of the world’s potash.

The first is in Canada.¹² 

The Saskatchewan basins are the most potash rich regions in the world. 

The large potash mines here are the driving force behind Canada accounting for 31.8% of all the world’s potash production. 

The other major potash production regions is where things get concerning for the agriculture industry. 

That’s because the other major potash production region is in the border areas between Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. 

This is home to the most fertile soil in the world. 

And it’s also home to 38.8% (18% Belarus and 20.8% from Russia!) of the world’s potash production.⁸

For obvious reasons, this major source of potash may not be available⁹. 

And that’s exactly what happened in early 2022. 

When Russia and Belarus were cut off from international trade, the price of potash soared. 

The real and ongoing scare brought a lot of attention to new sources of potash production.

And companies like American Potash (CSE:KCL / OTC:APCOF) really showed their potential as a major new source of potash. 

   

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Why Potash Is A “Critical Element”

Photo by James Baltz on Unsplash

Potash is one of the world’s most essential minerals. 

Despite its limited uses – the world uses 95% of all potash in fertilizer¹¹ – it is an essential ingredient to modern farming and keeping the world fed¹⁰. 

That’s because plants use the potassium from the potash to to build deep roots which allows them to recover and intake more water. 

This allows them to produce bigger fruits and survive variable weather from storms to droughts. 

This seems basic, but it truly has a huge impact on the production capacity of farms. 

This is why the New York Times described potash as a “critical element”⁹ and the global agriculture industry was concerned about potash exports from Russia and Belarus.

Because when potash supply dips or supply increases, the potash market can get crazy fast. 

 

There’s No Bubble Like A Potash Bubble

Potash is one of the most supply and demand sensitive markets in the world. 

You’ve seen directly what it does to corn production. 

So the costs of not having enough potash fertilizer can easily surpass even big price gains. 

We saw this twice already in the last few years. 

Look at this chart from NASDAQ market data which shows the potash price over the past 20 years or so:



There were two major price spikes. 

The first was between 2004 and 2008. 

The price of potash soared from less than $100/tonne to more than $700/tonne. 

The main driver then was demand. 

Agriculture prices were soaring. 

Corn, for example, went from $2.00 per bushel to more than $7.00.

The cost of not having max production was extreme. 

As a result, every farmer wanted as much potash and other fertilizers at virtually any price. 

That’s why there was a six-fold increase in potash prices just from a bit of demand increase. 

For investors the equation was massive. 

Crop prices jumped, potash prices soared, and potash stocks absolutely exploded. 

It happened all over again in 2022. 

In the 18 month period from March 2021 to November 2022 potash prices lept from around $200/tonne to a new all-time high of more than $800/tonne. 

This time it was supply fears. 

Demand wasn’t dropping, but the market was bracing for major supply disruptions from Russia and Belarus…

Which, as you saw above, account for 38% of world potash supply. 

Again, it didn’t take much. 

Just a slight change to supply or demand and prices can soar.

Even today there’s still lingering questions about global potash production and the price of potash remains well above historical norms at a recent report of $370 per pound. 

That’s why American Potash’s (CSE:KCL / OTC:APCOF) location is critical as well. But we’ll get into the resource-rich region in a moment. 

 

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American Potash Targets World’s Next Great Potash Discovery 

American Potash’s core asset is the Green River Potash And Lithium project located in southern Utah.

The location is the key here.

The Green River Basin is one of the most resource rich regions in all of North America. 

The Green River is one of the western U.S.’s largest rivers and a major tributary to the Colorado River. 

It runs from Wyoming, Colorado, and ends in Utah where it joins the Colorado River at Canyonlands National Park. 

The Green River dates back centuries.

This river has been the life support for many nomadic tribes dating all the way back to the Fremont peoples of 2000 years ago. 

That’s thousands of years of water moving and concentrating mineral-rich sediments along a riverbed.

Think of the resource-rich salt flats, but just on a potentially bigger and richer scale. 

Or the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin that’s been the global lifeblood for uranium and potash.

Or the Powder River Basin for coal. 

The Green River Basin has the kind of geographic history that has created the world’s largest mineral deposits. 

And it has been the driving force behind a century of resource development success in the region.

It all started in the 1920s with LaBarge oil. 

Then it expanded to the discovery of Green River shale formation, estimated to be 3 trillion barrels of oil shale¹⁴, the largest in the world.

For potash, the Green River Basin is also home to a company called Intrepid Potash (IPI). 

Intrepid Potash is the largest producer of raw potash in the United States.

Here’s an aerial view of Intrepid Potash taking the potash-containing brine and having it dry out in long, shallow pounds in southern Utah’s dry climate:


It’s a big operation. 

But here’s the thing. 

This giant potash production operation is just about 10 miles away from where American Potash has staked potash exploration claims. 

But again, back to the resources of the Green River Basin.

The large historical amount of natural resources here doesn't just mean there’s likely to be more, there’s also a lot of historical exploration data. 

And this is what is giving American Potash an advantage in its quest for the next great U.S. potash discovery. 

American Potash has acquired a 100% stake in mineral rights covering a huge land stake in the heart of the Green River Basin. 

These leases cover 11 official leases covering 7,050 acres of land for potash and lithium resources. 

There are potash specific applications for another 11 leases which would cover 25,000 acres. 

And there’s still 128 more at the federal level for lithium brine which would cover more than 2,500 acres of exploration territory. 



Here’s a map of where these leases and licences cover: