Chinese demand boosts Brazil’s sorghum exports

Brazil is the world’s second-largest sorghum producer, behind only the U.S. At the other end, China accounts for more than 80% of global sorghum imports, which it uses both in animal feed production and to make baijiu, a traditional local alcoholic beverage.

Brazil is expected to ship up to 2 million tonnes of sorghum this year, said Carolina Hernandez, VLI’s executive director of commercial, projects, and strategic planning, in an interview with Valor. The company alone has already negotiated the transportation of around 800,000 tonnes.

“We estimate that VLI will move between 800,000 and 1 million tonnes of sorghum in 2026,” the executive said. “We already have a large market share in this market,” she added. To achieve this position, the company had to set up a new system entirely dedicated to sorghum. “When we saw that China would have this demand and that Brazil had a good shipping window, we decided to create a logistics solution,” the executive said.

To make the shipments possible, VLI’s main initiative was to segregate its assets for handling sorghum, using equipment it already owned. According to Hernandez, it was necessary to set aside space to receive the cargo at the transshipment terminal, as well as in warehouses, silos and conveyor belts, and to dedicate a rail fleet. At the port, space is also segregated for loading so there is no contamination.

The company began receiving the sorghum destined for export in July. The cargo traveled on the Centro-Atlântica Railway along two different routes: from Araguari, in Minas Gerais, to Espírito Santo, through the Eastern Corridor; and from Uberaba, in Minas Gerais, to the Port of Santos, in São Paulo, through the Southeastern Corridor. By September, VLI had already shipped more than 250,000 tonnes, including 90,000 tonnes through Santos and more than 160,000 tonnes through the Port of Tubarão, in Vitória, Espírito Santo. In both cases, the destination was China.

Also in September, the rail operation reached the Northern Corridor, with the first shipment of sorghum to the Port of Itaqui, in São Luís, Maranhão. VLI expects to ship the sorghum moved through this corridor early this month, with an initial destination in North Africa and China as the final destination.

In the year through August, Brazil exported 231,200 tonnes of sorghum. Chinese buyers accounted for a large share of the volume Brazil shipped during the period, purchasing 196,050 tonnes in August alone, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture.

This business flow became possible after the two countries signed, in November 2024, a phytosanitary protocol for the export of Brazilian sorghum to China. However, it was not until November 2025 that Beijing authorized the first Brazilian facilities to export to the Chinese market. Shipments really began to gain traction in the second half of this year.

In Brazil, sorghum is grown in the second crop, during the winter, when it competes with corn. Sorghum’s advantage is its lower production cost, since the crop requires less water and fewer fertilizers to develop. Among producers, the perception is that sorghum is the best option for planting when the ideal climate window for corn has been missed.

Paulo Bertolini, president of the Brazilian Association of Corn Producers (Abramilho), says China’s arrival as a buyer has stirred the market, including resulting in better prices. According to him, in São Paulo, it is already possible to find sorghum priced close to corn. “In the past, sorghum was used only for animal feed. Today it is used to produce ethanol and now for export,” he added.

For the executive, the main bottleneck for sorghum is logistics, since shipping channels are still being developed and also require approval from Chinese authorities. In some cases, sorghum has to be shipped in containers rather than bulk carriers, which makes the process more expensive.

“Logistics costs make it difficult to access our sorghum. On the other hand, we are encouraged that, even with this difficulty and a lack of tradition in exports, Brazil is growing [in exports], and not only to China, but also to African countries that are buying as well,” he said.