SAO PAULO, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Brazil’s 2024/25 grain harvest, which is currently being planted, could help logistics company Rumo S.A. reach a new operational record in 2025, the company’s chief executive on said Monday.

“A very strong soybean harvest is shaping up, and the corn harvest will certainly be strong too. We want to have in 2025 another year that sets an operational record for the company, and we are very optimistic,” said Pedro Palma during an event organized by BTG Pactual.

He did not detail the expected volumes.

After an initial delay due to a drought in central Brazil, soybean planting in the 2024/25 season took off with the arrival of rains and reached 54% of the projected area last week, the second highest rate on record, consultancy AgRural said on Monday.

The acceleration in soy planting also brings a positive sign for the country’s second corn harvest, planted after the soybeans are harvested on the same fields.

In addition to the optimism about next year’s harvest, Palma said that Rumo will also be focused next year on the delivery of a logistics terminal in the state of Mato Grosso, scheduled for 2026.

Grain cargo accounts for a large portion of the products transported by Rumo, which is also seeing growth in corn ethanol deliveries, since the production of the biofuel has been increasing in the country.

“There is a strong need for this cargo to be transported from rural Brazil, so today Rumo’s main fuel flow is no longer oil-based fuel leaving Paulinia (in Sao Paulo state) to supply agricultural producing regions, as it was in the past,” Palma said. “Today the main flow is corn ethanol.”

According to him, given the growing production of ethanol in Mato Grosso, Rumo is forced “at times” to take empty wagons to the state in order to meet this demand.