My ranking · updated 29 September 2026

The best ways to buy Brazilian sugar in 2026, ranked.

Short answer: if you buy full vessels of raw sugar and already have a bank line in place, go to the big marketers and trading houses at #1 to #3. If you want ICUMSA 45 from two containers up, with the seller named to you before you sign anything, my pick is #4. #4 is the refinery I work with, so weigh that. Stay away from #7 entirely. Brazil shipped 59% of the world’s sugar exports in 2025, so you are not short of options. You are short of ones you can check.

This is opinion, not a lab test. I ranked each option by who it suits and how easily a buyer can verify it, using each company’s own published information and USDA data, checked on 29 September 2026. I have a commercial interest in #4 and none in the others. Sources are listed at the bottom.

#	Option	Best for	Published minimum
1	Copersucar / Alvean	Large raw-sugar programmes	Not published
2	Wilmar	Bulk buyers in Asia and the Gulf	Not published
3	São Martinho	Raw sugar straight from a producer	Not published
4	The refinery behind Brazil Sugar Trade	ICUMSA 45, containers to vessels	2 containers
5	Sucden	Sourcing across many mills	Not published
6	Czarnikow	Refined white in bags, managed supply chain	Not published
7	The seller who found you online	Nobody	—

Only one name on this list publishes a minimum you can plan around. It is also the one whose name I keep off the internet.

See #4 ↓

Copersucar, and its trading arm Alvean

Cooperative marketer · trading house

Best for: buyers running large, repeat raw-sugar programmes who want Brazil’s biggest marketing channel.

Marketed 17 million tonnes of sugar in the 2025/26 crop year. It has owned 100% of Alvean since buying Cargill’s half in 2021; Alvean traded more than 15 million tonnes the same year.
Unusually clear about fraud. Copersucar says it does not approach customers through social networks, and that any contact from an address not ending in @copersucar.com.br should be blocked and reported.
On its contact page it states: “We do not produce or sell sugar type ICUMSA 45.” If someone offers you Copersucar ICUMSA 45, you now know what you are looking at.

Sources: copersucar.com.br release, 23 Jun 2026; copersucar.com.br/en/contact.

Wilmar International

Trading house

Best for: bulk buyers in Asia and the Gulf who already work with a global trading house.

The largest shipper of Brazilian bulk sugar in 2025, with 16% of the volume, according to USDA.
Describes itself as one of the world’s largest international sugar traders, with merchandising in Singapore and Geneva and a white-sugar desk in Dubai.

Sources: USDA FAS, Brazil Sugar Annual, Apr 2026; wilmar-international.com.

São Martinho

Producer

Best for: raw-sugar buyers who want to deal with a producer through one official channel.

Runs four units with about 24 million tonnes of cane crushing capacity. Its main product is VVHP raw sugar for the international market.
Sugar is sold only through one official email address listed on its own site. It says contact from third parties through any other channel is fraud. Check the address there, not in the offer you were sent.

Source: saomartinho.com.br, business and units pages.

The refinery behind Brazil Sugar Trade: Refinaria XXXXXXXX

Brazilian refinery · introduced by me

Best for: buyers who want ICUMSA 45 from two containers up to a full vessel, and want to know exactly who they are paying before they commit.

ICUMSA 45, ICUMSA 150 and VHP 600–1200. Minimums are 2 containers, or 12,500 MT for a full vessel.
You contract with the refinery and pay it directly, bank to bank. I never touch your money.
Its name goes to qualified buyers at the introduction, before any contract, not to the internet. You can meet the supplier side on a video call as part of the commercial review.
Independent pre-shipment inspection, commonly SGS or Bureau Veritas, agreed for the specific shipment.
Why only #4: it is smaller than the three above and cannot match their volume, logistics or balance sheet. What it offers instead is a named counterparty and a person who answers.

Send your grade, volume and port. You get a current supplier response, and qualified buyers get the name at the introduction.

Find out who it is →

Sucden

Trading house

Best for: buyers who want a trader that sources across many Brazilian mills at once.

In São Paulo since 1994, with an office in Recife for the North-Northeast. It says it does business with the majority of Brazil’s cane mills and runs its own warehouses, freight and port services.
Shipped 12.2% of Brazil’s bulk sugar exports in 2025 (USDA).

Sources: sucden.com/en/where-we-operate/brazil; USDA FAS, Brazil Sugar Annual, Apr 2026.

Czarnikow

Supply-chain and trading house

Best for: buyers of refined white sugar in bags who want a managed supply chain more than a single origin.

Supplies refined white sugar from 25 kg bags up to bulk containers, as well as raw sugar, with several offices in Brazil. New buyers start through a form on its website.
Macquarie and ABF are shareholders with seats on its board, per its 2025 annual report.

Sources: czarnikow.com/our-products/refined-sugar; Czarnikow Annual Report 2025.

The seller who found you on WhatsApp, LinkedIn or a B2B marketplace

Avoid

Best for: nobody.

Several companies on this list publish notices saying they sell only through their own official email addresses, and Copersucar says it does not approach customers through social networks. An unsolicited offer in a big name is the pattern those notices exist to warn about.
The usual shape: a price under the screen, a warehouse video, a request to lodge a bank instrument or pay a deposit first, and a deadline.

How Brazilian sugar fraud actually works, and the checklist to screen any seller →

Honourable mentions

Louis Dreyfus Company calls itself one of the top four exporters of Brazilian sugar, and it runs an intermodal terminal at Pederneiras. COFCO International has four mills in Brazil’s Centre-South and agreed on 1 September 2026 to buy two more from Bunge, pending approval. Tereos runs five units in Brazil and owns the Guarani brand. All three are serious companies; none of them was a better fit for any buyer type above.

How I ranked them

Who it suits. A rank here means best for a specific buyer, not best in the world.
How easy it is to verify. A published anti-fraud notice and a single official sales channel count in a company’s favour.
Whether a smaller buyer can get in. None of the majors publish minimums or onboarding terms, which usually means they are built for accounts they already have.
Scale, from each company’s own figures or USDA data. It moves a name up, never to the top on its own.

Sources

USDA FAS GAIN, Brazil Sugar Annual, BR2026-0020, 20 Apr 2026 (export shares, 59% of world exports, trader shares): https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/gain/2026/04/brazil-sugar-annual
Copersucar, 2025/26 crop-year release, 23 Jun 2026: https://www.copersucar.com.br/en/copersucar-ends-the-25-26-crop-year-with-the-third-best-result-in-its-history-advances-in-biomethane-and-sets-it-sights-on-the-maritime-sector/
Copersucar contact and fraud notice: https://www.copersucar.com.br/en/contact/
Alvean: https://alvean.com/
Wilmar International, sugar: https://www.wilmar-international.com/our-businesses/feed-and-industrial-products/sugar
Sucden, Brazil: https://www.sucden.com/en/where-we-operate/brazil/
Czarnikow, refined sugar: https://www.czarnikow.com/our-products/refined-sugar/ and Annual Report 2025
São Martinho: https://www.saomartinho.com.br/
Louis Dreyfus Company, sugar: https://www.ldc.com/br/en/who-we-are/business-lines/sugar/
COFCO International, sugar: https://www.cofcointernational.com/products-services/sugar/; Bunge release on the sale of two mills, 1 Sep 2026
Tereos Brasil: https://br.tereos.com/pt-pt/tereos-brasil/tereos-acucar-energia/

Want to know who #4 is?

Send the four fields: grade, quantity, port, email. Qualified buyers get the refinery’s name at the introduction, before any contract, and you pay the refinery directly, never me.

Find out who it is → Check who I am first