CUT vs VEGI

CUTDInvesco MSCI Global Timber ETF

VEGIAiShares MSCI Agriculture Producers ETF

In short

CUT The first timber ETF to list in the US, running since 2007. It owns the forest and the mill: timberland owners plus the companies that turn logs into lumber, paper and packaging, across developed and emerging markets.

VEGI The picks-and-shovels version of farming: VEGI holds the global companies behind agricultural products and equipment, as stocks rather than crop futures. Running since 2012, and priced under the typical global thematic fund.

Stated mandate

CUT The Fund is passively managed and seeks to generally match, before fees and expenses, the performance of the MSCI ACWI IMI Timber Select Capped Index. Its mandate covers securities connected with forest ownership and management and the manufacture of timber-based products.

VEGI The fund seeks to follow an index of global companies involved in agricultural products and equipment.

Why people hold it

• CUT Launched November 2007, ahead of every other US-listed timber fund, so it carries a full cycle of history including the housing bust.stockanalysis.com
• A genuine timber mandate: forest and timberland owners plus makers of finished wood products. Not a broad materials fund with a few lumber names bolted on.msci.com
• The index builds from MSCI's all-country investable market universe, so large, mid and small caps across developed and emerging markets qualify, not just US timber REITs.msci.com
• About 50 holdings, and the index is a capped version, which limits how big any single position can get.

• VEGI At 0.39% a year it undercuts the 0.56% median for its global thematic peer group, on a niche most broad-market funds barely touch.
• Equity exposure, not commodity futures. You own the producers and equipment makers themselves, so there is no futures roll schedule in the machinery.ishares.com
• Live since 2012 tracking an MSCI ACWI agriculture producers index: a long runway for a theme fund, and it sits in the top quartile of its global thematic cohort.

Worth knowing

• CUT Costs 0.76% net of a waiver through August 31, 2027, and 0.99% without it. That sits above the category median; VEGI charges 0.39% and MOO 0.56%.
• Assets stay small and the shares trade thinly, so bid-ask spreads can cost more than the fee on a short holding period.
• Income lands once a year rather than quarterly, and most of the portfolio is priced in foreign currencies.

• VEGI Diversification is the thin spot: roughly 130 stocks, all tied to one global industry, so the whole fund leans on a single crop-and-input story.
• Agriculture equities swing with crop prices, weather and fertilizer cycles, so the ride is bumpier than a broad global index.
• Mid-sized and only moderately traded, so spreads can run wider than in giant index ETFs. That shows up most on large or hurried orders.

Full CUT profile⁠

Full VEGI profile⁠