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By Marcelo Picolo<\/strong><\/p> <\/p> The Center for Arbitration and Mediation of the Chamber of Commerce Brazil-Canada (CAM-CCBC), the largest arbitration chamber in Brazil and a reference in Latin America, recorded a 200% increase in agribusiness-related cases between 2021 and 2024 compared to the previous four-year period (2017\u20132020). Over these eight years, the total value of disputes exceeded BRL 576 million. In 2025 alone, BRL 65 million are already under dispute awaiting arbitral rulings.<\/p> \u201cArbitration has long been a common practice for resolving conflicts in public sectors such as energy and infrastructure, but we can now say that agribusiness has also discovered that \u2018private justice\u2019 is the best way to save both time and money for the parties involved,\u201d said Ricardo de Carvalho Aprigliano, Vice President of CAM-CCBC.<\/p> Arbitration proceedings tend to be faster than those handled by the regular courts. The average duration of agribusiness disputes concluded at CAM-CCBC is 19.4 months.<\/p> Example of a Dispute<\/strong> In one publicly known case related to the sale of companies in the sugar and ethanol sector and administered by CAM-CCBC, the dispute revolved around quantities of sugarcane from a specific harvest. One of the parties claimed that the harvest should have reached approximately 7.2 million tons, as stipulated in the contract for the completion of the corporate acquisition.<\/p> The buyer, however, argued that the milling capacity of the industrial plants was insufficient, which would reduce the transaction\u2019s value. Shortly thereafter, the arbitral tribunal ruled that the correlation between milling capacity and sugarcane availability was irrelevant, deciding that the contract signed between the parties should be fulfilled as agreed.<\/p> This case became public due to legal or judicial reasons. In most situations, however, arbitration disputes remain confidential even after the arbitral tribunal\u2019s decision is disclosed to the parties.<\/p> \u201cCompanies and institutions that choose to settle disputes through arbitration chambers can rest assured that their cases will not be made public,\u201d says Aprigliano, who is also a professor at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo (USP) and an arbitrator.<\/p> An arbitral award can only become public if it does not involve private entities, if specific legislation requires it, or if both parties agree to disclosure. Otherwise, nothing is made public.<\/p>
Conflicts arising from the agribusiness industry are distributed as follows: 68% involve corporate matters (e.g., mergers and acquisitions or joint venture dissolutions); 14% concern contracts for the purchase and sale of agricultural products, including planting and harvesting; 9% deal with rural real estate transactions and agricultural lease agreements; and the remaining 9% involve financial issues such as the securitization of rural credit.<\/p>