iShares MSCI Agriculture Producers ETF

iShares MSCI Agriculture Producers ETF (VEGI) is a BlackRock index fund. It holds 153 stocks of companies around the world that make fertilizer, crop chemicals and farm machinery, or that grow and trade crops. At 0.39% a year, it was the lowest-cost of six similar agriculture funds compared. The fund is lopsided, though: Deere & Company alone made up 28.4% of assets as of August 31, 2026.

• Over the year to Oct 27, 2026, VEGI returned +14.4%, 2nd of 6 among similar funds.
• Its 5-year annualized return was +4.2%.
• Its worst full calendar year was 2023 (-8.6%); its best was 2021 (+21.6%).
• The deepest fall in its price history was 28.8% (Apr 20, 2022 to Apr 8, 2025), recovered by Feb 11, 2026.

As of Aug 31, 2026, the fund held 153 securities; the ten largest made up 66.66% of assets.

By sector

• Over the three months to Aug 31, 2026, investors withdrew a net $13.3M (creations minus redemptions, per the N-PORT report).
• Monthly total returns reported for that quarter: +1.61%, +0.06%, +6.71%.

VEGI tracks the MSCI ACWI Select Agriculture Producers Investable Market Index (IMI). MSCI starts with its ACWI IMI, a broad index of large, mid-size and small companies in developed and emerging markets. From that index, it keeps only companies focused on the early stages of farm production: fertilizers, agricultural chemicals, crops and other farm products, and farm machinery and parts. Packaged-food and meat companies qualify only if most of their revenue comes from producing agricultural commodities. Companies that turn crops into finished goods are left out. As of August 31, 2025, the index covered 25 countries or regions.

MSCI, not BlackRock, decides which stocks go in the index and how much each one weighs. BlackRock's adviser, BFA, uses "representative sampling." It may not own every stock in the index. Instead, it holds a sample chosen to match the index's size, industry mix, volatility and yield. At least 80% of assets go into index stocks or near-identical depositary receipts. Up to 20% can go into futures, options, swaps, cash and other securities. As of August 31, 2026, the fund also held tiny S&P 500 and Euro Stoxx 50 futures positions.

The fund doesn't try to beat its index or move into cash when markets fall. Portfolio turnover was 19%, and the fund may lend out securities worth up to one-third of its total assets. It concentrates in the same industries its index does. That is why Deere alone was 28.4% of assets.

• VEGI charges 0.39% a year, versus an average of 0.53% for the similar funds below (1st of 6, cheapest first).
• Using the prospectus's standard example, $10,000 invested would cost about $40 in the first year and $493 over 10 years (assuming a 5% annual return).

It is a narrow, single-sector fund with more than a quarter of its assets in one company, so it works better as a small add-on than as a foundation.

VEGI's farm-equipment, fertilizer and crop-trading stocks have not moved closely with the broad market. Beta measures how much a fund moves with the market, and VEGI's one-year beta was 0.28 as of October 27, 2026. Its price history starts June 2, 2020, so it misses the 2008 crisis and the 2020 crash, though the prospectus shows a 24.36% loss in early 2020. During the 2022 bear market the fund lost only 0.8%. But its own slide, which began in April 2022, deepened to 28.8% by April 2025, and it didn't fully recover until February 2026. Its worst calendar year in the prospectus was 2015, down 13.95%. Anyone drawing cash during that slide would have been cashing out shares below their old high for nearly four years.

It yielded 1.93% as of October 27, 2026, paid twice a year, and costs 0.39% a year. Past results don't predict the future, and a plan should look at the whole portfolio, not one fund.

Matched by holdings overlap from the latest N-PORT reports.