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On June 2, 2026, the AD Ports Group — a state-owned company of Abu Dhabi that operates the largest ports in the United Arab Emirates — announced the acquisition of Corredor Logística e Infraestrutura (CLI), the largest independent operator of agricultural bulk terminals in Brazil, for AED 3.1 billion (US$ 835 million), taking control of two terminals that account for a significant portion of the country’s soybean, corn, and sugar exports.
What CLI is and what AD Ports is buying
CLI operates two strategic assets of Brazilian agricultural logistics. CLI South is the main sugar export terminal in the country at the Port of Santos, as well as a relevant terminal for corn and soybeans — the largest port in Latin America. CLI North is at the Port of Itaqui, in Maranhão, part of the so-called Northern Arc: the complex of ports in northern and northeastern Brazil that is becoming the main outlet for Cerrado soybeans to Asian markets.
In 2025, CLI handled 17 million tons of agricultural cargo — equivalent to an entire harvest from several Brazilian states — generating revenue of US$ 178 million and EBITDA of US$ 98 million. The infrastructure includes silos, berths, conveyor belts, and bulk carrier loading systems.
The sellers were Macquarie Asset Management (the world’s largest infrastructure asset manager) and IG4 Capital (a Brazilian manager focused on alternative investments). The deal is still subject to approval by CADE and regulatory bodies, with closing expected in the second half of 2026.
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Why Abu Dhabi wants Brazilian soybeans
The direct answer is food security. The United Arab Emirates imports more than 90% of all the food they consume. In a world where wars, droughts, and climate shocks can disrupt global supply chains in weeks, controlling the infrastructure of the largest agricultural exporters on the planet is the most effective way to ensure priority access to food.
Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of soybeans, sugar, beef, coffee, and oranges. For Abu Dhabi, buying the terminals that export these products is equivalent to securing a priority line at the world’s largest food shelf. AD Ports already operates terminals in 25 countries — from Egypt to India, from South Africa to Belgium — and entering Brazil represents the company’s first operation in South America.
This is not philanthropy. It is food geostrategy executed with sovereign fund capital. The same petrodollars that financed decades of food imports now buy the logistics from the source.
What the sale says about Brazil and its agricultural infrastructure
CLI was built with private capital and enhanced by Macquarie — which bought, modernized, and now sold it at a profit to a strategic foreign player. Brazil does not have a formal mechanism to veto foreign acquisitions of critical logistics infrastructure — unlike countries like the USA, which have CFIUS to review investments in sensitive assets.
The question many logistics and national security experts ask is: in a geopolitical crisis, who will ensure that CLI terminals prioritize Brazilian exports? The honest answer is that the concession contract — signed with the Maranhão Dock Company and the Port of Santos — defines operational obligations, but profitability and long-term strategy now respond to a shareholder in Abu Dhabi.
On the other hand, the sale of CLI also reveals something positive: Brazil has agricultural logistics infrastructure of sufficient quality to attract billions of foreign capital. The Itaqui terminal, in particular, is part of one of the most impressive stories in recent Brazilian logistics — the Northern Arc that shifted soybean exports from Paranaguá to northern ports, cutting days of travel to Asia and saving billions in freight.
What’s next: more petrodollars in Cerrado logistics?
The purchase of CLI paves the way for more investments from the Gulf in Brazilian agribusiness. Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia have sovereign funds with much greater investment capacity than the CLI deal. Brazil has port terminal concessions, railways, and waterways available or in the bidding process — all natural targets for sovereign capital from countries that need to ensure their long-term food security.
The Moegão terminal in Paranaguá, for example, which is under construction with R$1.1 billion in private investment, represents the type of asset that attracts this capital. The question is whether Brazil will create mechanisms to ensure that these investments come with benefits for the country — or if it will simply sell the infrastructure without any strategic conditions.
The move by AD Ports is not isolated. In 2024 and 2025, sovereign funds from the Gulf and Singapore acquired or invested in port terminals in Australia, Canada, Poland, and now Brazil, signaling a coordinated strategy to ensure access to agricultural export infrastructure in the world’s largest producing countries. The pattern is clear: capital from nations that import food seeking to control the physical export gates of the nations that produce them. Brazil, with its expanding agribusiness and historically underinvested port terminals, is a natural target. Every port terminal concession Brazil launches in the coming years will attract interest from Gulf capital, Asian funds, and major European port operators — all with the same strategic interest: ensuring priority access to the flow of the world’s largest harvest when the next major food supply crisis comes.
If the Emirates buy the logistics that export Brazil’s soybeans, who really controls the world’s largest agricultural exporter?
