Brazil Sugar Trade ← Home Who is #4?

My ranking · updated 14 November 2026

Sugar suppliers in Brazil: the top exporters, ranked, and how to buy safely.

By , São Paulo

Brazil’s biggest sugar suppliers and exporters are Copersucar and its trading arm Alvean, Wilmar, São Martinho, Sucden and Czarnikow, with Louis Dreyfus, COFCO and Tereos close behind. Brazil shipped 59% of the world’s sugar exports in 2025, so you aren’t short of names. You’re short of ones you can check. If you buy full vessels of raw sugar and already have a bank line, go to #1 to #3. If you want ICUMSA 45 by the vessel, from 12,500 MT, with the seller named to you before you sign anything, my pick is #4. It’s the refinery I work with, so weigh that. Stay away from #7. And whoever you choose, pay the way the diagram below shows.

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.

#OptionBest forPublished minimum
1Copersucar / AlveanLarge raw-sugar programmesNot published
2WilmarBulk buyers in Asia and the GulfNot published
3São MartinhoRaw sugar straight from a producerNot published
4The refinery behind Brazil Sugar TradeICUMSA 45, by the vessel12,500 MT
5SucdenSourcing across many millsNot published
6CzarnikowRefined white in bags, managed supply chainNot published
7The seller who found you onlineNobody—

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 ↓

Whoever you buy from

How a safe purchase works, step by step

Twelve steps and four checkpoints. At each checkpoint something is compared with the contract you signed. If it doesn’t match, the supplier is the one who doesn’t get paid. Your money only moves at the end, against documents that match.

  1. 1The credit matches the contract
  2. 2The sugar matches the specification
  3. 3Shipped on time
  4. 4The documents match the credit
  1. You

    Send your requirement

    Grade, quantity per shipment, discharge port, and the bank you plan to use.

  2. You and the supplier

    Sign the contract

    It fixes the specification, quantity, packing, discharge port, price, the inspector (SGS), the latest shipment date and the exact list of documents the bank will ask for. Everything after this is checked against it.

  3. Your bank

    Issue the letter of credit

    A non-transferable documentary credit, sent through the SWIFT banking network to the supplier’s bank and repeating the contract’s terms. Your money stays in your account.

  4. Supplier’s bank

    Check the credit is real

    Under UCP 600, a bank that advises a credit is saying it is satisfied the credit is authentic. The supplier then checks every term against the contract, and anything wrong is amended now, before a bag is filled.

    Checkpoint 1: the credit matches the contract

  5. Supplier

    Produce and bag your sugar

    Made against your contract, to the specification and packing it names.

  6. SGS

    Inspect the sugar before loading

    The inspector samples and tests it against the specification (colour, polarisation, moisture and the rest) and checks the weight and the bags.

    Checkpoint 2: the sugar matches the specification

  7. Carrier

    Load the ship and issue the bill of lading

    The sugar is loaded at the Brazilian port and the carrier issues a clean on-board bill of lading, dated the day of loading. That date must fall on or before the latest shipment date in the credit.

    Checkpoint 3: shipped on time

  8. Supplier

    Insure the cargo (the “I” in CIF)

    Under CIF the supplier pays the freight and insures the sugar from loading to your port. Under Refined Sugar Association rules the cover is the invoice value plus 10%, on the Institute Commodity Trades Clauses (A). Once the sugar is on board the risk is yours, and this insurance is what protects it.

  9. Supplier

    Present the documents

    Bill of lading, SGS certificate of quality and weight, commercial invoice, certificate of origin and insurance certificate, handed to its bank within 21 days of shipment and before the credit expires.

  10. The banks

    Check every document against the credit

    Banks deal with documents, not sugar, and they have up to five banking days to decide.

    Checkpoint 4: the documents match the credit

    ✓ Everything matches

    The bank pays the supplier. The sugar is already at sea, inspected and insured.

    ✗ Anything doesn’t match

    The wrong quantity, a certificate that misses the specification, a late shipment date: the bank can refuse to pay. The supplier isn’t paid until it’s put right, at its own cost. Your money hasn’t moved.

  11. Your bank

    Hand you the documents

    Including the original bill of lading, which you need to collect the cargo.

  12. You

    Receive the sugar at your port

    Clear customs with the documents. If the cargo was damaged at sea, you claim on the insurance certificate.

What this can’t do: it won’t stop a delay, and you pay your own bank’s charges for the credit. The refinery at #4 works exactly this way. More on why the credit should be non-transferable and what protects you if sugar arrives off-spec.

01

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.

02

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.

03

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.

04

The refinery behind Brazil Sugar Trade: name withheld

Brazilian refinery · introduced by me

Best for: buyers who want ICUMSA 45 by the full vessel, from 12,500 MT, and want to know exactly who they are paying before they commit.

  • Who answers: me. The refinery appoints me as its representative on each operation, and my job is to bring it qualified buyers, so its desk isn’t buried in enquiries that will never ship. I’m Brazilian-American and live in São Paulo, so for a buyer abroad I’m the person here who speaks the language and knows how things work in Brazil. I never handle your money.
  • ICUMSA 45, ICUMSA 150 and VHP 600–1200. The minimum is one 12,500 MT 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 →
05

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.

06

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.

07

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 → · How to verify a Brazilian sugar supplier →

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

  1. Who it suits. A rank here means best for a specific buyer, not best in the world.
  2. How easy it is to verify. A published anti-fraud notice and a single official sales channel count in a company’s favour.
  3. 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.
  4. Scale, from each company’s own figures or USDA data. It moves a name up, never to the top on its own.

Sources

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