China's COFCO says it is committed to Brazil soy-buying moratorium

Corrects paragraph 7 to say STS11 is COFCO's, not China's biggest port exporting facility in the world

By Ana Mano

SAO, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Chinese state-owned grain trader COFCO is committed to Brazil's soy-buying moratorium, Allan Virtanen, the company's global director of communications and sustainability said on Friday, despite pressure from local farmers to make it more flexible.

Virtanen was addressing a press conference and declined to comment further.

The soy moratorium program is a voluntary commitment by global grain traders not to buy soy grown in areas of Amazon deforestation after 2008.

COFCO is one of Brazil's largest grain exporters, having shipped 17 million metric tons of agricultural commodities from the South American country in 2024.

Sergio Ferreira, COFCO's director of operations in Brazil, told reporters the company is on track to start operating a new grain terminal at Port of Santos in April, indicating the importance of Brazil for its global shipping.

The new terminal, called STS11, will handle 14.5 million tons of commodities including soybeans, corn, sugar and soymeal per year when fully operational in 2026.

STS11 is COFCO's biggest export port terminal anywhere in the world, the executives said.