M&A activity snapshot
Ag retail is a large market dominated by a few big players. The CropLife 100, the largest U.S. ag retailers, recorded $42.9 billion in 2025 revenue, a 0.9% decline from $43.3 billion. Fertilizer was $19.9 billion and crop protection $15.3 billion, holding 46% and 36% of sales respectively. In the 2024 edition, the Big Eight retailers held 70% of all CropLife 100 sales.
Below the top tier, the base is fragmented. Census County Business Patterns counts 9,322 establishments in NAICS 424910, farm supplies merchant wholesalers, most with fewer than 20 employees. A single cooperative or retailer can operate many of those establishments.
Few deals are disclosed, and cooperatives are involved in most of them. Ocean Park counted 9 ag retail M&A deals in 2024, 8 of which involved cooperatives as either buyer or seller. In 2025, only four closed, and Ocean Park notes that many ag retail deals are never disclosed.
Who is buying
Cooperatives. Cooperatives are the most frequent buyers in the 2024-2025 deal record. CHS acquired West Central Ag Services, a cooperative serving more than 3,000 members from 14 locations. Co-op joint ventures buy as well: GreenPoint Ag, a farmer-owned joint venture with more than 100 retail and wholesale agronomy locations, acquired Producers Ag Services in Georgia and GC Ag Products in Arkansas in 2026.
National retailers. Helena and Nutrien continue to actively review acquisitions to expand or fill in their networks. Helena's owner Marubeni says Helena's locations grew from approximately 100 at acquisition to over 550, mainly through roll-up acquisitions, with roughly 9% of the overall U.S. market. Nutrien has slowed sharply: business acquisitions cost it $23 million in 2025 and $21 million in 2024.
Nationals pulling back. According to Ocean Park, Simplot is less likely to look at acquiring smaller ag retail locations, and Wilbur-Ellis has cut back on acquisitions.
Grain and agronomy companies. The Andersons acquired a 65% stake in Skyland Grain for $85M, approximately doubling the size of its ag retail business. Regional players such as The Arthur Companies closed two smaller acquisitions in 2025.
What buyers look for
Footprint fit. According to Ocean Park, buyers now target operations that fit strategically within existing footprints and have supply chain reliability, integrated offerings, differentiated products, digital capabilities and employee talent depth. An independent next to a buyer's existing plants and terminals is worth more to that buyer than to anyone else.
Proprietary product mix. Private-label and proprietary inputs earn more. Nutrien says its proprietary products generate higher margins for our Retail segment compared to non-proprietary products. In 2025, Nutrien Retail earned $1,590 million of gross margin on $6,105 million of crop protection sales and $1,424 million on $7,285 million of crop nutrients. By Axia arithmetic, that is about 26% and 19.5%. These are the largest retailer's blended figures, not a benchmark for an independent.
Agronomy staff and services. Retailers sell advice along with product. ARA describes ag retailers providing scouting, soil testing, field mapping and custom application, often staffed with Certified Crop Advisers. Nutrien supports its network with over 4,200 crop consultants.
Credit quality. 71% of top retailers listed price volatility, including financial instability and accounts receivable issues at the farmgate, as their chief concern going into 2026. Buyers will age every grower receivable.
What makes a strong company
A crop input distributor that commands buyer competition typically has:
- Locations that fill a gap in a cooperative's or national's trade area, with storage, blending and application equipment in working order.
- A growing share of proprietary or differentiated products, and certified agronomists who own the grower relationships, not just the owner.
- Clean per-location dealer licensing. Iowa, for example, requires a license for each location or outlet within this state from which such pesticides are distributed.
- Documented compliance for anhydrous ammonia. Storage above the 10,000-pound threshold in 40 CFR 68.130 triggers EPA Risk Management Program requirements.
- Disciplined grower credit: a low share of receivables past due after harvest, and prepay programs that fund inventory.
Valuation and deal structure
Ag retail does not publish multiples. Ocean Park notes that many ag retail deals are never disclosed, and the disclosed ones rarely include target EBITDA. Axia found no source that reports a reliable EV/EBITDA range for independent ag retailers. No U.S. public company is a pure-play ag retailer, so there is no clean trading-multiple proxy either.
What disclosed deals do show is how much of the price is balance sheet. CHS's cash purchase price for West Central Ag Services was $322.6 million, which includes $108.0 million for working capital. Ocean Park reported the deal at $225M. The gap shows how much the stated price depends on whether seasonal working capital is included.
Timing therefore matters. Nutrien notes that customer prepayments are typically concentrated in December and January, and inventory prepayments to suppliers from November to January. A seller should agree with the buyer on a normalized working-capital target that reflects that cycle, rather than a single month-end balance.
Outlook
Expect consolidation to continue through 2027, mostly through cooperative mergers and fill-in deals. Ocean Park lists pending Mercer Landmark, Sunrise Cooperative and Centerra Cooperative merger talks, and announced plans by Ag Plus and Farmward Cooperative to merge. The pressures pushing owners to sell are documented: gross margin pressure, inflationary operating expenses and lack of succession plans.
Fertilizer prices are rising again, and that pushes up working capital needs. World Bank benchmark DAP averaged $685.2 per tonne in 2025 and $791.8 in July-September 2026, up from $563.7 in 2024. Higher input prices mean more inventory and receivables to finance. That favors well-capitalized buyers and gives independents with tight credit discipline a stronger negotiating position.
Own an ag retail or farm supply business? Run the valuation tool for a market-data starting point, or return to the Agriculture & Agribusiness M&A overview. See also: how buyers build a proprietary deal flow pipeline.