Buyer guide · updated 12 October 2026
Is a 1 million tonne ICUMSA 45 offer real?
One million tonnes is about 23% of all the white sugar Brazil exported in 2025 (4.3 million tonnes), and more than twice what its biggest buyer, Mauritania, took in the whole year. Shipped, it is about 17 full Supramax vessels, or 20 million 50 kg bags. “A million tonnes a month for 12 months” would be 12 million tonnes, more than two-fifths of all the white sugar traded in the world in 2022.
One million tonnes, in context
| Comparison | Figure | 1 million tonnes is |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil’s white sugar exports, 2025 | 4.3 million t | About 23% |
| Brazil’s biggest white sugar buyer, Mauritania, 2025 | 431,290 t for the year | About 2.3 times |
| World gross exports of white sugar, 2022 | 27.5 million t | About 3.6% |
| India, the largest white sugar exporter in 2022 | 6.6 million t | About 15% |
| China’s whole in-quota import allowance at 15% duty | 1.945 million t a year | Just over half |
China’s quota covers the whole country, not one buyer, and 70% of it is allocated as state-trading quota.
Have an offer with a number that looks too big? Send it to me with your own quantity and port.
Send a requirement →What a million tonnes looks like at the port
- Brazil loads sugar in Handymax vessels carrying 20,000 to 40,000 tonnes and Supramax bulk carriers carrying up to 60,000 tonnes. In 2020 the average sugar shipment was 43,000 tonnes from Santos and 34,000 tonnes from Paranaguá.
- So a million tonnes is about 17 full Supramax cargoes, or 25 to 50 Handymax cargoes.
- Less than 5% of Brazil’s sugar exports in 2020 went in bags. A million tonnes in 50 kg bags is 20 million bags.
- A million tonnes a month means about 17 full Supramax cargoes leaving every month for one buyer, on top of everyone else’s sugar.
What real orders look like
The first shipments I see from real buyers are 12,500 to 25,000 tonnes by vessel, or a few containers. The mill I represent can load up to 60,000 tonnes a month. When an enquiry arrives for hundreds of thousands of tonnes from a company with no import history, it is usually speculation or price-hunting.
Why the big numbers appear
The International Chamber of Commerce’s Financial Investigation Bureau has warned about suspect sugar transactions where buyers may have been tempted by “too good to be true” prices, and its checks found that the stated destination port lacked the draft for a vessel carrying the quantity in the documents. You can check the port’s draft yourself.
The question isn’t new. In July 2024 a user on Reddit’s r/Commodities forum asked whether people really buy a million tonnes of ICUMSA 45 every month. One commenter with a trader flair said people he knew who had dealt with such enquiries found they tend to be probing for information: pricing levels, supply and demand outlook, contract terms.
What to ask when you see one
- Who is the producer, and how much white sugar does it export in a year?
- Which port and which vessels, and how many tonnes in each shipment?
- Which bank will issue or confirm the payment instrument for that amount?
- What is the first shipment, and when could it load?
Then verify the seller, and see how sugar fraud actually works. Sizes for smaller orders are in buying Brazilian sugar by the container.
Sources
- ComexStat (MDIC), Brazilian exports by NCM 1701.99, by destination, January–December 2025: https://comexstat.mdic.gov.br/
- International Sugar Organization, Sugar Year Book 2023, gross exports of white sugar, 2016 to 2022: https://www.isosugar.org/content/memo/syb_2023.pdf
- Proinde, Loading Sugar in Brazil: Practical Guidance, Oct 2021 (vessel sizes, ANTAQ average shipment sizes, share of bagged exports): https://proinde.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PROINDE-Loading-sugar-in-Brazil-Practical-Guidance.pdf; recommended by Gard, 1 Dec 2021: https://gard.no/en/insights/carriage-bagged-refined-sugar-bulk-carriers/
- MOFCOM Announcement 2025 No. 64, 2026 sugar import tariff-quota rules, 30 Sep 2025 (1.945 million tonnes, 70% state trading): https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/zfxxgk/fdzdgknr/ztfl/blgg/art/2025/art_001194bbc3f1410782c6046380c1ebb4.html; State Council tariff announcement 2025 No. 11, 26 Dec 2025, annex 2 (15% in-quota duty): https://gss.mof.gov.cn/gzdt/zhengcefabu/202512/P020251229510521470214.pdf
- ICC Financial Investigation Bureau, Suspect sugar transactions, 2 Feb 2010: https://iccwbo.org/news-publications/news/suspect-sugar-transactions/
- Reddit r/Commodities, thread of July 2024 on million-tonne ICUMSA 45 orders: https://www.reddit.com/r/Commodities/comments/1e4umfs/
Checked on 12 October 2026. Rules and web pages change; check the source before you rely on a detail.