FTAG vs VEGI

FTAGCFirst Trust Indxx Global Agriculture ETF

VEGIAiShares MSCI Agriculture Producers ETF

In short

FTAG Live since 2010, FTAG owns the companies trying to squeeze more out of every acre: roughly 60 global stocks tied to improving agricultural yields, held as equities rather than grain futures.

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

FTAG FTAG seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield of the Indxx Global Agriculture Index. The index targets companies directly or indirectly engaged in improving agricultural yields.

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

Why people hold it

• FTAG An equity route into the farm theme. The index targets companies working to improve agricultural yields, so you hold operating businesses, not commodity futures contracts.ftportfolios.com
• Trading since 2010, a long live history for a single-theme fund, covering more than one full swing in the global farm cycle.
• A genuine basket, not a two-stock proxy: roughly 60 names, a global mandate by design, and distributions on a quarterly schedule.

• 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

• FTAG At 0.70% a year, it prices above the typical fund in its global thematic peer group, where index-tracking rivals such as KLMT and IQSZ run far cheaper.
• A small asset base and light trading volume. Spreads tend to be wider than on mainstream funds, and larger orders take more care to fill.
• One narrow theme, concentrated in about 60 stocks. Returns track crop economics and farm spending far more closely than the broad global market.

• 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 FTAG profile⁠

Full VEGI profile⁠