Brazil’s rural debt delinquency rate reached 8.2% in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Serasa Experian data reported by CNN Brasil. The rate rose 1 percentage point from the same period in 2024, but the quarterly increase slowed to 0.2 percentage point.
The figures cover debts held by individuals in Brazil’s rural population that were more than 180 days overdue and owed to companies connected to agribusiness. This article is based on single-source reporting from CNN Brasil, citing Serasa Experian’s monitoring.
Pressured Cash Flow
Serasa Experian, a Brazilian credit data and analytics company, said the numbers suggest default risk remains elevated even as the pace of deterioration has eased. Marcelo Pimenta, the company’s head of agribusiness, said producers still face tight margins and pressured cash flow because of high costs, volatile prices and more selective access to credit.
The company’s Agro Score, a credit-risk indicator for rural producers, also weakened. The average score fell from 616 points in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 600 points in the same period of 2025.
The data come as rural credit remains a central issue for Brazilian agribusiness, one of the country’s largest economic sectors and a major source of exports. Higher financing costs and tighter lending standards can matter sharply in the countryside because production cycles are long and many farmers borrow before planting or raising animals, then repay after harvest or sale.
Who Owes the Debt
By borrower profile, rural producers without rural registration information showed the highest delinquency rate, at 9.9%. CNN Brasil said this group may include tenant farmers or participants in family or business groups. Large landowners followed closely, at 9.8%, while medium-sized producers had an 8.3% rate and small producers 7.8%.
Financial institutions accounted for a 7.2% delinquency rate among creditors. Debts owed directly to agribusiness creditors represented 0.3%, while debts in other sectors linked to agribusiness, such as transport, storage and insurance, stood at 0.2%.
Serasa said the lower rate owed to agribusiness creditors should not obscure the size of those debts. The average overdue amount with financial institutions was R$115,500, while the average owed within the agribusiness sector reached R$138,200. In other agribusiness-related sectors, the average was R$32,600.
Pimenta said rural credit tends to involve higher loan amounts, longer terms and greater financial exposure. That means a relatively small number of delinquent borrowers can concentrate large debt volumes, raising risk even when the overall rate appears controlled.
Regional Divide
Brazil’s North had the highest regional delinquency rate, at 12.5%. The Center-West, the country’s main grain-producing region, stood at 9.6%, followed by the Northeast at 9.4%, the Southeast at 7.0% and the South at 5.7%.
At state level, Rio Grande do Sul recorded the lowest delinquency rate, at 5.3%, followed by Paraná and Santa Catarina. Amapá, in the far north, had the highest rate, at 19.9%.
Pimenta said Rio Grande do Sul’s performance stood out given recent climate losses. He attributed the result to factors including a strong cooperative presence, integrated production systems, wider use of agricultural insurance and credit lines used to renegotiate debt.