Brazil’s agriculture sector is capitalizing on the attention from this year’s COP30 event and its unique position to deliver on sustainable ag and AI — pushing past financial challenges like high interest rates — to be one of the key markets to watch in 2026.
2025 proved to be “a tough year for traditional ag” in Brazil, with many farms declaring bankruptcy, as commodity prices remain low in the country, pressuring farming margins, Kieran Gartlan, managing partner at venture capital firm The Yield Lab Latam, told AgTechNavigator.
Brazilian interest rates also remain high at 15%, compared to around 2-3% in developed countries, further pressuring the country’s ag economy, he noted.
Farming bankruptcies in Brazil are on the rise, with Banco do Brasil — a major ag lender — reporting a record-breaking loan delinquency rate of 5.34% in Sept. 2025, with R$19.3 billion worth of loans 90 days past due.
However, farming is a cyclical business, and Brazil is starting to emerge on the other side of these headwinds, creating opportunities for investors, Gartlan explained.
“We are used to these types of ups and downs, so I think this is pretty natural. We are probably at the bottom, and now we are on our way up again. We are seeing maybe a little uptick in M&A activities. We are seeing a lot of interest from foreign companies coming in to access Brazil,” Gartlan elaborated.
He added, “For any investors, we say now is the time. Don’t wait until things start heating up again because that is usually what happens. People [say], ‘Oh, we want to see that things are on the rise,’ but then by that time, it is too late. So really, you need to know that agriculture is cyclical. The opportunity for investment or acquisitions is now.”
COP30 attracts investors to Brazil
Last month, Brazil hosted the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belem, which put the country’s ag sector “on the map” for many investors, Gartlan explained.
During COP30, the COP Action Agenda on Regenerative Landscapes (AARL) revealed a co-investment platform to deploy $5 billion to restore Brazilian land, while the Gates Foundation invested $1.4 billion in farmers impacted by extreme weather, including in Latin America.
“We have a lot of opportunity here, but very little capital and very expensive capital. If we can bring cheaper capital from other regions — more developed regions — to access opportunities here in regen ag and sustainability, I think that’s where we have an opportunity, and probably the best way to do that is through technology."
Kieran Gartlan, managing partner at The Yield Lab Latam
The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) played a huge role in shaping sustainable agriculture in the country and demonstrated the potential of Brazilian ag in a sponsored “Agrizone” section of COP30, Gartlan noted. Embrapa “brought the field into the conference,” through a test plot with net-zero crop varietals, he added.
“People are beginning to see Brazil through the eyes of a source of regenerative and sustainable agriculture because you have all the natural ingredients here. You have year-round production. You have space, soil, labour, technology, a huge internal market, and exporting. [Brazil is] now the largest ag and food exporter in the world,” he elaborated.
Fueling Brazil’s digital ag renaissance with AI
Brazil is also positioned to capitalize on the AI boom, given its robust energy sector, advancing digital agriculture in the country, Gartlan explained. In December, TikTok parent company ByteDance announced plans to invest more than $37 billion in a Brazilian data centre, as Bloomberg reported.
“We have a lot of opportunity here, but very little capital and very expensive capital. If we can bring cheaper capital from other regions — more developed regions — to access opportunities here in regen ag and sustainability, I think that’s where we have an opportunity, and probably the best way to do that is through technology,” Gartlan said.
The Yield Lab Latam is partnering with industry stakeholders to support the development of AI solutions for Brazil’s ag sector, Gartlan noted. This not only can provide transparency to the supply chain but also create a revenue opportunity for farmers, who can sell their data to tech companies, Gartlan explained.
“We are doing a project here with the rural society, where we are trying to create a research center for AI in agriculture. We are trying to get all the parts together — like the traditional incumbents, ag companies, big tech companies, start-ups, universities — to start looking at how AI can be used to improve everything along the supply chain, not just internal operations of companies or on the farm,” Gartlan elaborated.
What’s next for The Yield Lab Latam
The Yield Lab Latam is supporting ag innovation in Brazil and across Latin America with its various funds, including its recently announced Ignition Fund for Mexican start-ups. The venture firm is exploring the possibility of doing something similar in Brazil to tap into the opportunity from early-stage start-ups, Gartlan explained.
“We’ve launched a $20 million fund called the Ignition Fund in Mexico, and we might do one similar in Brazil. The idea there is to capture value at an earlier stage. So, a small fund that has more strategic investors — not pure VC — but a strategic group from the supply chain, like impact companies or farmer groups, etc., that are investing in early-stage stuff that then creates a natural pipeline or funnel for the bigger fund,” he elaborated.
Additionally, the Yield Lab Latam plans to deploy more capital from its current main fund and expects to “reach 75% allocation of that fund by the first quarter of next year,” Gartlan said. The venture capital firm will then start raising for its next fund, aiming for a $50-100 million fund, he added.