Gerson Freitas, Jr. – Bloomberg, 7/15/2014
SLC Agricola SA (SLCE3), Brazil’s biggest publicly traded cotton and soybean grower, is scaling back plans to double its growing areas after commodity prices plunged.
SLC, which has tripled its land since going public in 2007, is scrapping a plan announced in 2011 to expand to 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) by 2020 from about 344,000 now, Chief Executive Officer Aurelio Pavinato said in an interview. Instead, the Porto Alegre-based company wants to boost cash flow by making current farms more efficient, he said.
Soybeans and corn are trading at four-year lows and cotton is posting the second-biggest slide among agricultural commodities worldwide this year, making farmland purchases in parts of Brazil that are far from ports less desirable. SLC is now focusing on areas that need fewer investments through leasing and joint ventures as well as on cutting costs.
Brazil Portal 