The Port of Santos handled 10.9 million tons of cargo in February 2023, the port complex’s second-highest total for that month. Its performance fell 14.8% short of the 12.8 million tons (historical record) in February of last year, mainly as a result of reduced export volumes of soybeans (-10.6%) and sugar (-24.3%). The harvest delay influenced the fall in soybean shipments, despite the record production anticipated by the National Supply Company (Conab), at 151.4 million tons for 2022/2023, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa). Also, the Ministry reported that sugar foreign sales dropped because of reduced domestic export availability brought on by concerns with the climate affecting sugarcane crushing. Even so, the total amount of sugar handled in the year increased by 2.0% to 2.1 million tons. Likewise, despite the decline seen in February, corn shipments rose by 22.2% in the first two months of 2023 to reach 1.5 million tons.
Source: Datagro (*Translated by Ia Niani)