Top Materials Stocks of 2012: Agrium (No. 4)

Shares of Agrium (NYSE: AGU  ) are up 48.65% year to date. The company is the largest agricultural retailer in the world, with 1,250 stores, and competes with some of the companies with the largest market capitalization in this space, such as CF Industries (NYSE: CF  ) , PotashCorp (NYSE: POT  ) , and Mosaic  (NYSE: MOS  ) . In this video, Motley Fool materials analyst Taylor Muckerman tells us what advantages Agrium has over its competition, and how it is benefiting from the current imbalance in supply and demand.

Is PotashCorp a threat to Agrium?
With less and less arable land available around the world, increasing yields from existing plots will become vitally important to keep up with expected population growth. Cheap and effective fertilizers could be the key to achieving this goal. As the global leader in potash production, PotashCorp has several barriers to entry established that make it nearly impossible for competition to break through. Click here now to access The Motley Fool's new premium research report on PotashCorp, in which we cover precisely what these barriers to entry are and detail several other key reasons why this company presents such a compelling investment opportunity today.