Nu­trien’s shut­down of its am­mo­nia and urea op­er­a­tions in Trinidad has be­come a turn­ing point in the com­pa­ny’s re­treat from ni­tro­gen pro­duc­tion, as it sells off over­seas as­sets and redi­rects cap­i­tal to­ward potash, ac­cord­ing to re­port­ing pub­lished to­day by the Saska­toon StarPhoenix.

In the ar­ti­cle it notes that in Oc­to­ber, Nu­trien “com­menced a con­trolled shut­down” of its Trinidad op­er­a­tions, which pro­duced am­mo­nia and urea used in ni­tro­gen fer­tilis­er.

The com­pa­ny said the de­ci­sion came “in re­sponse to port ac­cess re­stric­tions im­posed by Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Na­tion­al En­er­gy Cor­po­ra­tion”, along with a lack of re­li­able and eco­nom­ic nat­ur­al gas sup­ply that af­fect­ed fi­nan­cial per­for­mance.

De­van Mescall, Ed­wards En­hance­ment Chair in Busi­ness at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Saskatchewan, said the chal­lenges in Trinidad went be­yond eco­nom­ics.

“I think that there were po­lit­i­cal chal­lenges in the Trinidad and To­ba­go op­er­a­tion, where a new gov­ern­ment there was try­ing to squeeze Nu­trien and re­strict its ac­cess to ports and force it in­to an un­favourable rene­go­ti­a­tion of their agree­ments,” Mescall said. “I think Nu­trien re­al­ized that was not in their best in­ter­est and so ceased those op­er­a­tions.”

Mescall said the com­pa­ny now views the tim­ing as an op­por­tu­ni­ty to sell as­sets and re­fo­cus its busi­ness.

“Nu­trien, he added, sees this as a good time to sell and use the in­come to fo­cus on ar­eas where they ex­pect more eco­nom­ic strength in the years ahead,” the StarPhoenix re­port­ed.

Since the Trinidad shut­down, Nu­trien has ac­cel­er­at­ed di­vest­ment of non-core as­sets. Over the past year, the com­pa­ny has gen­er­at­ed close to US$900 mil­lion through as­set sales.

This month, Nu­trien sold its 50 per cent stake in Ar­genti­na-based ni­tro­gen fer­tilis­er pro­duc­er Pro­fer­til S.A. for US$600 mil­lion to Ade­co­a­gro S.A. and the Aso­cia­cion de Co­op­er­a­ti­vas Ar­genti­nas. Ear­li­er in 2025, it fi­nalised the sale of its own­er­ship stake in Sinofert Hold­ings Ltd., a Chi­nese pro­duc­er of ni­tro­gen, phos­phate and oth­er fer­tilis­ers, for US$223 mil­lion.

Both Pro­fer­til and Sinofert were ac­quired through the 2018 merg­er of Agri­um and the for­mer Potash Cor­po­ra­tion of Saskatchewan.

In a state­ment fol­low­ing the Pro­fer­til sale, Nu­trien pres­i­dent and chief ex­ec­u­tive Ken Seitz said the di­vest­ment was part of a move to sim­pli­fy the com­pa­ny’s port­fo­lio and boost earn­ings.

The com­pa­ny did not re­spond to in­ter­view re­quests from the StarPhoenix.

In its first-quar­ter re­sults, Nu­trien said the pro­ceeds would be di­rect­ed to­ward “pri­or­i­ties that are core to our long-term strat­e­gy”.