Agribusiness Raising Capital

The thesis

Agribusiness has a set of funding instruments designed specifically for it, backed by production and by receivables across the value chain. For the mid-sized company in the sector, the choice between them depends less on the rate and more on where the collateral lies: in the harvest, in customer receivables or in the land

The foundation of it all, the Rural Product Note (CPR)

The Rural Product Note (Cédula de Produto Rural) is the instrument by which a producer or cooperative undertakes to deliver agricultural produce or to pay its equivalent value.¹ It is the originating instrument for much of the financing chain, and the receivable that subsequently backs capital markets instruments

The Agribusiness Law (Lei do Agro) modernised the note, broadened the range of eligible issuers and made registration with an authorised entity mandatory, giving purchasers greater legal certainty.²

The Agribusiness Receivables Certificate (CRA)

The Agribusiness Receivables Certificate is a security issued by a securitisation company and backed by agribusiness credit rights, such as Rural Product Notes and receivables from the sale of inputs or produce.³ The securitisation company acquires the receivables and issues the certificate to investors

For individual investors, income from the certificate is exempt from income tax, which tends to lower the cost for the issuer. Since 2024, the collateral for these certificates has been restricted to obligors whose principal activity lies within the agribusiness value chain.⁴

The Fiagro

Agro-Industrial Production Chain Investment Funds (Fiagro) may invest in rural property, in equity interests in companies in the sector and in agribusiness credit instruments.⁵ In practice, they have opened direct access to agribusiness credit and assets to retail investors

For the company raising capital, the Fiagro is one more potential buyer of the securities it issues and, in some structures, a means of monetising rural real estate without selling it to an operating third party

The value-chain FIDC

The receivables investment fund (FIDC) acquires the company's receivables portfolio, such as amounts due from resellers and producers, and advances cash on the strength of that portfolio's quality. For an inputs distributor, it is a way of financing the credit terms extended to producers without carrying all of it on its own balance sheet

The structure requires a granular portfolio, a measured default history and consistent origination, and therefore works best for companies that sell regularly to many customers

Segregated rural property (patrimônio rural em afetação)

The Agribusiness Law created an instrument that is little used yet highly useful: the ability of an owner to ring-fence part of a rural property to secure a specific debt, without encumbering the remainder of the estate.² The segregated land answers only for the obligation to which it has been tied

For producers and for companies in the sector, this changes the negotiation. Rather than pledging the entire farm as security, one pledges only the portion required, and the remainder stays free for other transactions

What investors require of agribusiness borrowers

Agribusiness credit carries specific risks that investors price in: revenue seasonality, weather, commodity price volatility and concentration in a few products or regions. A structure that ignores these factors pays more for them

A sound structure aligns the debt calendar with the harvest calendar, with grace periods and amortisation that coincide with cash inflows. Debt that falls due before the harvest creates a crisis the business itself did not have

Where the collateral lies decides the route

A company with a receivables portfolio spread across many customers tends towards the receivables fund. A company with Rural Product Notes and agribusiness receivables tends towards the receivables certificate. A company with land and rural real estate may look to the Fiagro. And the debenture or the commercial note serve when the collateral is the company itself

The right choice starts with an inventory of what the company can offer as security, not with a comparison of rates

Tiago H. dos Santos, partner in charge, Revenaz Assessoria, September 2026