Eoin Treacy's view It has been a difficult 18 months for food producers and prices for many agricultural commodities have risen impressively. Farmers have an incentive to produce as much as they can in order to maximise there return on investment and defray the burden of higher energy costs.

Fertilizer companies such as Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, Agrium, Mosaic, K+S, Incitec Pivot and Intrepid Potash have pulled back in sympathy with the wider market over the last month and returned to test potential support in the region of their respective 200-day MAs.

Yara International, CF Industries and Western Potash have bucked this trend somewhat by rallying from the region of their respective 200-day MAs over the last few weeks. This is particularly impressive against the background of a corrective phase in the wider market. Nevertheless, these shares are unlikely to be able to sustain moves to new highs in the absence of confirming evidence from equity and commodity markets generally.