Growth Point Ag

Brazil's soybeans cost more to move across Brazil than across the ocean to China. In June 2026, trucking one tonne of soybeans from Sorriso, in northern Mato Grosso, to the port of Santos cost about $99 (R$510). Trucking it to the port of Paranaguá cost about $97 (R$500). Both drives cover more than 2,000 kilometers of road. Ships loading Brazilian grain for China that same month were booked at about $50 to $55 a tonne. The voyage takes five to six weeks and crosses two oceans. Even with ocean rates well above where they started the year, the truck leg still cost almost twice as much as the ship. The most expensive part of Brazil's soybean trade is the first 2,000 kilometers. Northern routes shorten that leg. That same month, trucking the tonne from Sorriso to the Miritituba barge terminal, on the Tapajós River, cost about $61 (R$315). Every railway, river barge and northern port that shortens the road puts that difference back on Brazilian farms. Brazil's export margin is won or lost before the soybeans ever reach the sea.