Brazil’s agribusiness sector filed 389 requests for court-supervised debt restructuring in the first quarter of 2025, a 44.6% increase from the same period a year earlier and up 21.5% from the preceding quarter, according to credit bureau Serasa Experian. Individual farmers accounted for the bulk of the rise, lodging 195 petitions—an 83.9% jump from a year ago—while corporate producers filed 113 cases, up 31%. The livestock and soybean segments were among the most affected, with 42 and 59 requests respectively. Serasa’s head of agribusiness, Marcelo Pimenta, attributed the surge to volatile commodity prices, higher production costs, longer payment cycles and tighter lending standards that have squeezed cash flow and complicated debt rollovers. Under Brazil’s restructuring law, companies and individual producers can seek temporary relief from creditors while they negotiate a repayment plan aimed at avoiding outright bankruptcy.