Van Eck just launched another one of its Market Vectors funds on the American Stock Exchange (AMEX). The new Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF, with its oh-so-apt "MOO" trading tickers, covers the global agriculture market. The fund tracks the DAX Agribusiness Index, and charges 0.65% in annual expenses.

Between the ethanol craze and a global wheat shortage, agriculture is a pretty hot market at the moment; in particular, wheat supplies are at their lowest levels in a quarter of a century, according to the London-based International Grains Council. As a result, the new fund is being launched into a welcoming environment at a time when many new ETFs have to battle for assets. Further improving its prospects is the fact that it is the first ETF to occupy the agriculture space in the United States.

Its only ostensible competitor, the Powershares DB Agriculture Fund (DBA), takes an entirely different approach to the space. DBA invests in agricultural futures contracts, while MOO invests in agriculture-related companies. The two are driven by completely different dynamics, and have performed very differently: DBA is up 9.67% year-to-date, while the index underlying MOO is up 32.40%. Both figures are as of July 31.

MOO is a truly global fund, holding 40 companies trading on 13 global exchanges worldwide. In addition to meeting minimum volume requirements, components of the index must be worth at least $150 million. The United States dominates the index with a 55% weighting -- the next-largest country is Canada at 9.3% of the index.

The DAX Agribusiness Index covers several areas of the agriculture market, including agriculture chemicals at 34.3% of the index, agriproduct operations (33.5%), agricultural equipment (24.3%), livestock operations (5.6%) and ethanol/biodiesel (2.3%). The index's PE is fairly high at 26.61, and it has a PB ratio of 4.06.

The thin ethanol/biodiesel exposure may surprise some, given how much attention that hot sector gets in the market these days. But other companies in the agriculture space will certainly benefit from any ethanol-driven demand; for instance, fertilizer companies do well because it makes sense for farmers to invest more money in boosting yield if prices are high.