Nutrien Ltd. (NYSE:NTR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Jeff Tarsi: Yes, Steve, good question. And obviously, I have a lot more visibility into those results in North America as opposed to Brazil because as you would know, we own one of the largest soil analytic lamps in North America, weapon analytical. So we have a lot of data that we can pile through to look at that. And we provided interestingly enough, we provided that data for each of our divisions and even down to the county level, where we can simulate this data. I think if I look back to the fall, Steve, we actually had a very strong fall application of both NPK in North America. And I was quite satisfied with the rate growers we’re using. And I do agree, as these products become more economical. Look, we had a lot of product banked in the show over the last couple of years.

You got the last three falls have all three been record falls in North America. And so I think as the product becomes more affordable, I would expect to see some rates increase across these products. I was doing some math today. And these growers are spending upward to $150 an acre on their hybrid corn varieties. And these varieties are very temperamental with the NPK levels. And so I don’t think growers are going to risk any yield from that standpoint. As we get into Brazil, you talked about Brazil. And as you know, those solds are not able to bank Nutrien like we can across the corn belt there. So it’s more but just in time market. Ken and I and Pedro were just in Brazil last week, and we had a chance to visit with some growers as well as our people as well.

And the Safrinha season looks strong. It’s a little bit slower, but it’s slower because weather €“ as it’s related to weather. So again, the economics and the fundamentals are strong there. I think the growers will give the crop all the juice it needs to maximize out on yields.

Operator: Your next question comes from Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Adam Samuelson: Yes. Thanks, good morning, everyone. So a question on potash demand and really outside of North America and really thinking in the different parts of Asia and the view you have on channel inventories in the key importing regions of Southeast Asia, in China, in India that would inform kind of importer behavior that seems to be kind of mirroring the kind of slowness intensiveness that you’re seeing or have seen in the U.S. and Brazil? And then a second question, if I may, just on the growth investments that you alluded to for the year. There was a discussion on the retail side about digital. I was hoping if you could just elaborate on what that actually encompasses especially where that would seem to be a capital expense as opposed to an operating expense? Thank you.

Ken Seitz: Yes. Adam, thank you for the question. So we can certainly do the market-by-market discussion about inventories. And yes, destocking again in Brazil, U.S., and we can talk about India, China and Southeast Asia. I’ll hand it over to Mark Thompson to provide some color there. And then we can go to the digital question where €“ yes, we are seeing substantive growth on digital as it relates to putting dollars through that platform and certainly the type of investments we’re making there. But Mark, over to you.

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