SLC and Brado launch new route to haul Matopiba cotton to Santos

SLC Agrícola and logistics company Brado have completed a first-of-its-kind multimodal operation in Brazil, moving cotton from Maranhão state to the Port of Santos.

The shipment involved 246.2 metric tons of cotton produced by SLC. The cargo traveled by rail from Davinópolis, in Maranhão, to Sumaré, in São Paulo state, before being trucked to the Port of Santos. From there, it was shipped to Southeast Asia.

The two companies have worked together since 2020 to move cotton from Mato Grosso, Brazil’s main cotton-producing state, for export. The inaugural shipment through Santos now opens a new logistics option for cotton grown in Matopiba, the agricultural frontier that covers parts of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia.

Much of SLC’s cotton production in Matopiba is already transported by road to ports in southern and southeastern Brazil. With the use of the North-South Railway, which runs for more than 2,700 kilometers across the country, the same route could become less expensive, as rail transport generally has lower operating costs over long distances.

Rail also allows larger cargo volumes to be moved in a single trip than road transport, the companies said.

“That scale dilutes transport costs per metric ton, making the export flow more efficient and reducing logistics costs,” said Mayra Antunes Coelho, a sales executive at Brado.

According to Coelho, the companies chose the Port of Santos to connect a growing production region with Brazil’s main export gateway.

In a joint statement, SLC and Brado said ports in Brazil’s so-called Northern Arc still do not offer regular container vessel services to the main global destination markets for cotton. The companies said containers also provide better protection for cotton fiber quality.

The rail route from Davinópolis to Sumaré began being tested with other products in July 2025 and was officially activated in December.

“This first cotton shipment confirms the viability of this rail alternative to the Port of Santos, which offers the high frequency of vessel calls and container availability required for global exports,” Coelho said.

She added that no investment in physical assets was required for the operation with SLC.

“Brado used its existing infrastructure at the company’s multimodal terminals,” she said.

SLC has grown cotton since 1998, with most of its fiber destined for the textile industry.

“Assessing this new export alternative expands the possibilities for integrating different transport modes and generates important lessons for the development of future operations,” said Thiago Sanches, logistics coordinator at SLC Agrícola.

The companies described the operation as successful and said the logistics corridor is now “officially open and operationally ready for the market.”

For Coelho, the route demonstrated technical feasibility and safety for transporting cotton from Matopiba.

Brazil is currently the world’s largest cotton exporter. In 2025, it shipped 3 million metric tons, according to the Secretariat of Foreign Trade, or Secex.

Source: Globo Rural

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