In the first four months of 2014, ports in the south of Brazil mainly handled export soya produced in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Of the 1.6 billion tonnes sold by the state onto the international market, 1.26 billion tonnes (77.45%) exited via port terminals in Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul. In the first five months, almost half of the soya from the state was exported via Paranaguá port, in Paraná. This amounted to some 519mt (million tonnes).
In addition to Paranaguá and São Francisco do Sul, other southern ports favoured were Rio Grande (8.36mt) and Imbituba (4mt).