It has simply been all over the news. Whether you are aware of this in a positive sense because of portfolio profits or in a negative sense from inflation at the grocery store is irrelevant.

The beautiful thing is that the biggest profits are still unrealized and the true potential is still unreleased. Before I discuss this fantastic company set to make big profits off of the boom, I would like to give you my perspective from the wheat pits on the trading floor of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange as to the scope of the agricultural boom thus far.

Minneapolis wheat for March delivery hit an intraday peak on Friday of $19.80 before closing slightly below that number. At that peak, wheat traded with as high as a $4.25 gain on the week. Can anyone say $20 wheat? The March contract has traded limit up in every trading day except Friday. That includes the historic doubling of limits that started Monday. After multiple contracts traded limit for consecutive days, on Wednesday, limits were again increased by 50%, according to exchange rules, but they didn’t stop there. We again had multiple contracts trading limit on Wednesday and Thursday. This means that another 50% increase in exchange trade limits was in order.

Let me put this whole thing into perspective. This past Friday, limits were 30 cents. On Monday, they were 60 cents, Wednesday was 90 cents and this Friday until the following Wednesday, the futures contracts for Minneapolis wheat will trade with a $1.35 limit.

In wheat futures, each cent equates to a $50 gain or loss per contract (1 futures contract = 5,000 bushels of wheat) depending on whether you’re long or short. So let’s say you had bought one futures contract for March wheat on this past Friday’s close and sold it during the recent Friday’s intraday peak. You would have made more than $21,000…on one contract.

Wheat isn’t the only agricultural commodity on a tear, though. Soybeans also closed at a record high this week, and corn has been, and will continue to be, an astounding investment. Agricultural commodities are hot…really hot.

However, not all the big money is going to be made in commodities. A lot of it will come from the equities market…

You need look no further than seed and fertilizer giants such as Potash, Monsanto and Agrium. Just look at a six-month or one-year chart of these companies. If that doesn’t do it for you, then check out the most recent earnings of these particular companies and you will be quite impressed.

Those aren’t the only companies that have and will continue to profit off of the ag boom. In fact, I have a penny stock that has the profit potential of the options market, but carries the potential risk of a large-cap stock.

The name of this particular stock is Hanfeng Evergreen (HF: TSX; HFGVF: PINK SHEETS).

This company is attractive for a couple of reasons. Not only is Hanfeng a manufacturer and distributor of fertilizer, but the majority of its sales are located in China. You see, this is a two-birds-with-one-stone play. Not only do you have access to the massive profit potential of the agricultural markets, but you can also gain exposure to the Chinese markets.

Recent financials showed a 144% increase in sales and a 248% increase in earnings over the last nine-month period. Another fantastic positive for this company is that the NPK slow-release fertilizer that HF uses was just named an industry standard, giving the company a leading product. These are all positives going forward.

Until next time,

Nick Jones
February 20, 2008

Agriculture Commodities on a Tear was originally featured in the Penny Sleuth.